The Mist
by The Silent Scream
Summary: After defeating the latest baddie in Sunnydale almost on their own, Willow and her demon decide it's time for a holiday - in the innocuous town of Bridgton, Maine, a decision they soon come to regret as the evil there unfolds. Crossover with Stephen King's The Mist movie version . Rating for violence and language, Willow / OC est. relationship
1. Chapter 1

Author's Note: Yup… another one. It's almost a bit creepy how this whole thing developed a life of its own, but apart from that, I'm still having fun writing this, so I hope you'll have fun reading. :)

Disclaimer: All characters used from Buffy: The Vampire Slayer are property of Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy, yadda yadda. Nothing's mine. Same goes for all characters used from Stephen King's The Mist, just borrowing them for a bit.

* * *

The Mist

"I'm still not sure if Buffy will be fine with this", Willow mumbled, sounding as if she was close to falling asleep; the reason for this was easily discovered, namely being her girlfriend, whom she halfway laid on, a half-full wine glass in one hand.

"Why not?" Pat now wanted to know, forcing the redhead to stay awake a bit longer and making her shrug, the smaller woman taking the time for another sip of her wine before she replied. "Well, you're right that things have been calm lately, but you know that this often means some kind of Big Bad is just waiting around the corner. What if he comes out while we're gone?"

"Then she'll be able to handle it", the demon shrugged, "and I'm sure she'll agree. Come on Sweetie, when was the last time you left Sunnydale?"

"Shortly after Buffy died", Willow replied at once, "but back then I only went to L.A. to tell Angel."

"So that doesn't count", Pat decided at once, ignoring the way Willow raised an eyebrow at her, "and after we handled that last Big Bad practically alone, I think we deserve it. Also, just think about how much fun it would be! We could rent a car and drive there…"

"Drive there", Willow echoed, "that would take two days! Minimum!"

"Yeah I know", Pat shrugged, clearly not impressed by her partner's outcry, "but come on, that can be fun! We can stay at motels and eat at burger places and everything."

"Clearly, our ideas of fun differ when it comes to road trips", the redhead replied, clearly not all too happy with the thought of sleeping at motels, "but since that place you described sounds so romantic…"

"Oh it is", Pat hurried to reassure her, "right at that cute little lake, the house even has its own dock, and I'm sure we can rent a boat somewhere if you're into that… Or go swimming at night, there's no street lamps or something."

"Which means that you'll try to talk me into skinny dipping", Willow accused, smirking at the look of feigned innocence her girlfriend tried to put on in reply; she giggled and shook her head, then finished her wine before she spoke on, her words making the demon smirk. "But you're right, we really deserve that after dealing with that idiotic flamey guy… and it'd be nice to get out of Sunnydale again…"

"I know", the black haired woman agreed, obviously glad that finally, her girlfriend was accepting her suggestion, "so let's ask Buffy tomorrow if she's okay with it?"

"Yup", Willow agreed, then yawned, grimacing to herself as she forced herself to get up and out of the demon's embrace, "but now let's go get some sleep, I'm really, really tired."

"I can tell", Pat smirked, quickly gulping down her own wine before she got up from the couch; Willow gave her a slightly tired, but still cheerful smile, then the couple made their way into the bedroom together, the apartment soon falling silent as they both drifted off into dreamland and slumbered through the night peacefully.

* * *

In the next afternoon, Willow brought up Pat's suggestion to the group after the usual short report Buffy had given about the slaying of the last few nights; to her great relief, she was fine enough to go on patrol on her own again, something Pat had used as another good point for why Willow should agree to her idea, the redhead using it now, as well, even though the smile on Buffy's face showed that she liked the thought anyway and didn't need extra convincing.

"I think that's a great idea", the blonde reassured her best friend as soon as she had finished her small speech about why going on holiday would be a good idea and surely wouldn't bring any trouble at all, "and you're right, you really do deserve it, after basically taking over my job for two weeks when I was down. So when are you leaving and how long will you be gone?"

"Okay, now that sounds as if you want to get rid of us", Pat commented, shrugging when Buffy threw her a dirty look, then looking at the other members of the gang for support. "It does, doesn't it?"

"Yes it does", Anya agreed, "that was not very kind, Buffy!"

"Psh", Buffy let out in reply, "I do not want to get rid of them, I just want them to have that holiday, they really deserve it, as I said. Do you already know where you wanna go?"

"Yup", Willow smiled, dropping the topic of Buffy wanting to get rid of them or not, "to the typical American small town. Bridgton, Maine."

"Maine", Giles echoed, sounding surprised, "why a small town in Maine, of all places?"

"Because I own a house there", Pat informed him, prompting him to give her a surprised look – after all, she never had mentioned this so far, but on the other hand, she hardly ever spoke about her wealth, only when Anya tried to lecture her about the importance of education, so it wasn't really surprising that none of them had known about this so far.

"Just a little summer house thingy", she added at the surprised looks of the others, "at the lake there, really quite the romantic place, but unfortunately not big enough to take all of you along."

"If it's romantic, it's better anyway if you go there without us", Anya helpfully let her know in reply, "because you'll surely have lots of sex, and it would have a similar effect on Xander and me so, we would have lots of sex as well and that would Buffy, Giles and Dawn rather unsatisfied and maybe even envious."

"Ew, no", Dawn protested, shrugging at the look she received from the two couples in question in reply, then Buffy cleared her throat before anyone could come up with a rebuke and spoke up again, hoping that she wouldn't sound like she wanted to get rid of her friends again. "And how long do you plan to stay?"

"Well, we were thinking a week, but then Pat had the brilliant idea to drive there by car, so it'll probably be two weeks", Willow informed her, "because we'll spend four days all in all on the road."

"That'll be fun", Pat tried to convince her once more that this had been a good idea indeed, "and I promise I won't insist on playing my music in the car all the time!"

"You can play it as long as it's the nice, melodic stuff I like", Willow smiled at her, "but nothing with those grunts and growls, okay?"

"Agreed", the demon agreed at once, making the witch smile; they grinned at each other, prompting the rest to roll their eyes at their once more almost sickening sweetness, the two of them not noticing though.

"And when are you going to leave?" Dawn demanded to know, making them both shrug before Pat was the one to speak up, the demon throwing a loving glance at her girlfriend as she did so. "Next week on Monday, if I can convince Willow that it'll be okay to miss those two weeks of college."

"Oh, of course that'll be okay", Buffy clearly decided to help with that convincing job, "come on Willow, you know there's not much going on there at the moment, and you're so far ahead anyway, you won't even notice that you weren't there for two weeks."

"I know that", the redhead reassured her, "but it still feels weird to just skip for two weeks."

"That's because you're so dutiful", Pat helpfully told her what she already knew anyway, "I'm sure even your professors would tell you to go for it if you asked them if it's okay, and they'd tell you that you should take it easy for once."

"Monday it is then", Willow decided in reply, after thinking about the words of the two for a few moments, making her girlfriend smile, "then we'll also have time to get everything we'll need."

"Sounds like a plan", Pat agreed, then bent closer for a quick kiss; afterwards, the topic changed to how things were at college, then moved on as conversation took its course, neither Willow, nor Pat able to fully focus on the talking though, both suddenly too excited about their upcoming holiday to concentrate on the topics the other members of the gang were bringing up.

* * *

"Are you sure we got everything?" Willow asked for the sixth time, clearly to the exasperation of her girlfriend since this time, she didn't even reply verbally anymore, but just let out a grunt around the cigarette dangling from her lips while she slammed the lid of the car's trunk shut, keeping the redhead from opening the bags and going through what they had packed once more.

"It's all there", Buffy now took over the useless tries to calm her down, "I helped you check two times, remember?"

"And we got everything we need for the drive in the backseat?" Willow asked in reply, peeking at said backseat through the window, satisfied when she saw the bag with fruit she had packed and the bottles of water, the Slayer smirking next to her when Pat let out another grunt, then removed the cigarette from her mouth and spoke up. "Even if we forgot something, there'll be like, a million stores where we can buy stuff. Let's just hop into that car and go, alright?"

"Alright", Willow agreed after another look at the backseat, then turned towards Buffy to hug her; returning the embrace, the Slayer told her to enjoy the holiday and to be careful, Xander repeating those words when she moved on to him afterwards.

"And send us a card", Dawn demanded, "and take lots of pictures!"

"We will", Willow promised, smiling slightly when Giles was the next one to speak up, not surprising her with his words. "Please be careful with the car, you know I got it not all too long ago."

"I know", Willow reassured him, holding back the urge to giggle at him, "you know Pat's been driving for quite some time…"

"Several decades", the demon threw in, already twirling the car key around her index finger in a vain gesture of trying to speed up the good-byes, "and I'm keen on doing it again, so…?"

"Drive carefully", Buffy instructed her, "I want Willow back in one piece. And no flames once you're there!"

"Of course not", Pat gave back, raising an eyebrow, "what do you think I am, stupid? I'll be so flameless there, Willow will think I've turned to ice."

This made the redhead giggle, and she playfully nudged the taller woman's ribs; then, she waved at her friends once more before she finally got into the car, making herself comfortable on the passenger street.

"You got the map?" Pat asked her while she entered the vehicle as well and started the engine; with a short glance at Giles, she smirked and let the engine roar a few times, chuckling when the Watcher grimaced, then Willow gave her a strict look and made her stop.

"The map's right here", she then informed the black haired woman, holding the map up for emphasis before she placed it on her lap, then twisted in the seat to grab the bag of CDs Pat had brought along, quickly flipping through them as she tried to figure out which one wouldn't have any grunts and growls.

"I didn't bring any of those you don't like", the demon now made that decision even harder; the redhead took the time to smile at her, then focused on the CDs again, finally settling on one with a naked, red-haired lady on the cover, kneeling in some sort of forest and holding an apple, Pat giving her a brief smirk when she saw her choice.

"I hope you didn't just choose that one because there's a naked woman", she then stated, clearing her throat audibly at her girlfriend's response.

"I hope you didn't just pack it because of the naked woman", Willow shot back, the tone of her voice showing though that she wasn't fully serious, a smile forming on her face again when the taller woman replied. "Nope, of course not, she's got a good voice."

"So the naked lady is singing?" the redhead demanded to know while she put the CD into the player, "is she dressed while she does that?"

"I figure she is, or the other band members wouldn't get anything done", Pat chuckled, making the witch giggle as well; nodding, she leaned back into the seat while the music started, smiling at her girlfriend before she reached over to place one hand on her upper leg, making the demon smirk back at her before she focused on the road again, the only sound in the car being the music coming from the player as they left town and headed for their holiday destination.

* * *

Author's Note 2: Well, those of you who have seen or read The Mist will already know where this is going. Bonus points for anyone who can guess which album they are talking about in the car ;)


	2. Chapter 2

In the end, the two days (and three hours, as Willow reminded her girlfriend whenever possible) where not as much fun as Pat had thought they would be; the motels ranged between seedy and okay, and from one of the burger places, Willow not only took along a cold coke, but also an upset tummy, but apart from that, the travel went more or less smooth, the couple arriving at the small house the demon owned just an hour later than they had been planning to.

"Finally", the witch sighed while Pat parked the car in front of the house, then killed the engine; before it even had stopped running, Willow already had gotten out of the car and was alternating between admiring the house and trying to get her camera out of her pocket, mumbling to herself when she realized that some part of it had gotten caught on the fabric of her pants.

"This place is beautiful", she let her girlfriend know while she struggled with the camera, "why didn't you tell me earlier you own it? We should have come here much earlier!"

"The time never seemed right", Pat shrugged, "and we were always so busy. I'm glad you like it though, it'd suck if we'd spend two weeks in a place you hate."

"How could anyone hate this?" Willow nearly cried in reply, turning around to take the whole view in, "it's really beautiful! And the lake, oh wow…"

Finally managing to untangle her camera, she snapped a picture of the lake at first, then of the house and finally, due to obeying the rule of three, one of her girlfriend next to her car, something which earned her a grimace – Pat wasn't all too fond of being on pictures, for reasons Willow never had been able to figure out, the demon just telling her "Because" when she asked why.

"Think I'll be able to talk you into skinny dipping in that lake?" the demon now smirked, for once accepting that a picture had been taken of her without demanding that it was deleted; giggling, Willow shrugged and put the camera away again, then hurried to the house's front door, only to stop in disappointment when she found it locked.

"I hope you have a key", she called out to her partner, who was still busy with opening the trunk and getting out their luggage; nodding, the black haired woman moved over to her with a suitcase in each hand, putting them on the ground in front of the door before she returned to the car and got the rest of their stuff.

"Of course I do", she then elaborated and started digging through her pockets, "and you didn't really think I left that place unlocked for years, right?"

"No of course not", Willow hurried to reassure her while she found the key and unlocked the door, "but maybe there's a caretaker and he left the door unlocked."

"There is, but he'd be fired if he did that", Pat smirked, stepping aside to let her enter, the redhead's eyes widening as she stepped inside and looked around, stunned at how nicely furnished the house was.

Clearly, the caretaker had been doing a good job, or had been informed that the owner of the place would come for a visit soon and thus had cranked his work there up a notch; the rooms were spotless, no grain of dust spotted anywhere, the rooms smelling fresh and clean, as if they had been properly aired shortly before their arrival.

"Did you ever meet that caretaker?" Willow wanted to know while she moved from the small anteroom to the area behind it, finding a comfortable looking living room there, another door in the wall to her right leading to the kitchen, something she ignored though as she was fully focused on the large panorama window at the other end of the room, giving her a perfect view of the woods that laid behind the house.

"This is so beautiful", she breathed out, not even noticing how Pat moved up to stand behind her, a slight smirk on the demon's face as well.

"Why do you wanna know about the caretaker?" she demanded to know, wrapping both arms around the redhead's waist and chuckling at her answer, her words proving that, no matter how stunning the sight in front of her, her brain was still working just fine. "Well, if you hired him like, two decades ago or so, and he remembers, he might find it weird that you didn't age."

"I doubt he'll remember me that well", Pat shrugged, clearly not very concerned about this, "I think it's even been more than two decades since I hired him. I have no idea if it's even still the same guy."

"Problem probably solved, then", the witch decided after a moment, "now let's go and look at the rest of the house!"

Nodding, Pat pulled back from the embrace, then gave her girlfriend a quick tour through the rest of the house; to the delight of both of them, the caretaker even had thought about putting enough food for an evening into the fridge, along with a little note telling them that the meal was courtesy of his wife and that here was a supermarket in town where they could stock up on supplies in the next day.

"Maybe I'm paying this guy too much if he does stuff like that", Pat thought out loud while they sat down to eat the food which had been left for them, making the redhead giggle before she reprimanded her partner and told her that clearly, people of small towns just were more kind-hearted than those living in the big cities; then, she asked if they should go to that supermarket in the next day or right after eating, the demon deciding that the first option sounded more charming after a few moments of thinking about it.

"After spending half the day in that car, I don't wanna get my butt into that seat again today", she then explained, not surprised when Willow agreed at once; they finished eating together, then decided that after all the sitting, a little walk was in order and left the house to do just that, enjoying the perfect, relaxed mood and the perfect start of their first real holiday together.

* * *

When they returned from their walk an hour later, the first frown of the holiday appeared on Pat's face, caused by the man who was standing next to the car and looking at it intently, moving around it and studying it, looking up when he heard the couple approach, a bright smile immediately forming on his face.

"Hello there!" he called out, even raising a hand to wave; Willow automatically returned the salute, her girlfriend doing the same a second later, figuring that he wouldn't try to steal the car now that the owners were approaching him.

"Hi", the redhead now greeted him, giving her best to sound friendly, despite the fact that a lifetime in Sunnydale had made her more or less weary towards cheerful strangers, "I see you like the car."

This seemed an innocent enough comment to start a conversation, and clearly, it was working, since the man's eyes lit up and he nodded, his gaze moving to the vehicle again as he replied. "Oh, I do, it looks great. Is it yours?"

"Actually, it belongs to a friend", Pat was the one to answer that, "we just borrowed it so we could come here. For holidays, you know."

"Oh, so you're here for holidays", the guy replied, "I thought we'd be constant neighbours from now on. I'm David Drayton by the way, I live in the house over there, with my family."

With those words, he gestured at said house, at the small bit which could be seen through the trees all over the area; then, he extended his hand to the demon, prompting her to grasp and shake it after a moment, ignoring the way one of his eyebrows wandered up as she introduced herself and the way Willow snorted as she held back a giggle, remembering the countless times she had told her that "Pat Patterson" wasn't the best alias to use.

"Willow Rosenberg", she then introduced herself, as soon as she could be sure she wouldn't start laughing, "nice to meet you, Mr Drayton."

"Oh please", the young man gave back, with a casual gesture of his hand, "call me David. So you're here on holidays? How long are you staying?"

"Until next Friday", Willow informed him while Pat dug out her cigarettes and lit one of them up, them offered the pack to David, shrugging when he declined with a polite smile, "we came here with that car from California, so we'll spend the weekend afterwards on the road, driving back home."

"From California", David echoed, sounding surprised, "and then you come to Maine for a holiday? Eager to get away from the warm weather?"

"That place is mine", Pat let him know him in reply, gesturing at the house as if to make sure he was getting the right idea about which place exactly was hers, "so it seemed logical to come here."

"Indeed", David agreed, "I just hope for your sake you won't have two weeks of rain then."

"The weather's been fine so far", Willow shrugged, mentally noting down sympathy points for the young man – so far, he neither had asked nosy questions about the relationship between Pat and her, something guys always seemed to do in the first five minutes of talking to both of them, and to make him even more likeable, he had managed to avoid staring at the taller woman's eyepatch, something both men and women usually did when they saw her for the first time.

"Well", he now spoke up again, distracting her from her list of plus points for him, "I should get back home, it was nice to meet you. If you want to, drop by later for a drink or two, I'm sure my wife and son would love to meet you as well."

"Thank you, that's very nice", Willow smiled, oddly touched by this gesture; he smiled back at her, then turned and made his way back to his house, the redhead making sure that he was out of earshot before she turned to her girlfriend and spoke up again. "What a nice guy, to invite us over! We should go there, just to be nice as well."

"Maybe he and his wife are a deranged serial killer couple though", Pat smirked, chuckling when the witch nudged her ribs in reply and scolded her, then raising both hands to make it clear that she had been joking.

"I was kidding", she defended herself verbally as well, "and, sure, if you wanna, we can go there later. I wonder why he invited us over though."

"Well, that house has been empty for a long time, unless you rented it out to someone", Willow pointed out, "so maybe he's just glad to have new neighbours, even though it'll just be for a short time."

"Could be", Pat agreed after a moment, then gestured towards the house and asked her girlfriend if she wanted to get some rest after the long drive; nodding, Willow all at once realized how tired she felt after spending so much of the day sitting in a car, a yawn escaping her while she made her way back inside with her partner, eager to get some sleep before they'd head over and meet the family of their new neighbour.


	3. Chapter 3

Two hours later, they took David up on his offer and made their way to his house together; momentarily, Willow was worried if he really had meant it when he had invited them over and hadn't just tried to be polite, a concern that vanished the moment though he opened the door to their ringing and she saw the way his face lit up.

"There you are!" he greeted them with surprising enthusiasm, "come on in, it's great that you really came over."

"It's very nice of you to invite us", Willow gave back, the young man waving her thanks aside with a careless gesture of his hand before he asked them to follow him and led them into the living room, asking them to sit down there; the moment they had done so, a young, blonde woman, clearly the wife of David, entered and greeted them just as heartily as her husband had, introducing herself as Stephanie before she asked them if they wanted anything to drink.

"I have wine and beer if you're in the mood for that", she then started listing the available beverages, "or, if you don't want alcoholic stuff, coke, iced tea and lemonade."

"I'll take a beer please", Pat answered first, not surprised when Willow asked for a glass of red wine, knowing that the redhead preferred that over beer whenever it was available; smiling brightly, Stephanie nodded, then hurried back into the kitchen, only to be replaced with a boy who came storming into the living room.

"Billy!" David called out, prompting the kid to come to a screeching halt, "be careful, or you'll fall. Also, we have guests!"

"Oh it's okay", Willow quickly reassured him, smiling at the child, "kids tend to have a lot of extra energy, and it has to go out somewhere, right, Billy?"

"Yes!" Billy cheered, smiling widely at the redhead – before he looked at Pat, sounding mildly curious when he spoke on. "Are you a pirate?"

"Billy", David scolded again, clearly embarrassed while Willow momentarily held her breath, not sure how her girlfriend would react to this, a smile forming on her face again though when the demon just smirked, then shook her head and told the kid that she wasn't a pirate.

"Pity", Billy let her know, losing interest in her the moment she had said those disappointing words and turning towards his father again, asking him if he had noticed the big black clouds outside.

"Clouds", David echoed, throwing his guests a confused look, "no, I didn't. Wanna show them to me?"

"Yes!" Billy cried out enthusiastically, jumping up from his seat again; with an apologetic look towards the couple, David got up as well and moved to the window with his son, the frown that formed on his face seconds later prompting Willow and Pat to exchange worried looks before they got up as well and joined the two.

"Those are some big clouds indeed", the demon commented after a few moments of silence, "looks like our first day here will end with a massive rain."

As if that had been some kind of cue, a light breeze came up, stirring the branches of the trees around the house to life; with a sigh, David turned away from the window to look at his guests, sounding dismayed when he replied. "I'm afraid it won't just be rain, it'll be a downright Maine-trademarked storm. Bad start, huh?"

"Well, it can only get better then", Willow shrugged, her eyes widening a moment later as a thought hit her and she looked up at her girlfriend, sounding worried when she continued. "We didn't leave any windows open or anything, right? It'd suck if it'd rain into the house or if something got damaged by the wind."

"No, all windows are closed", Pat calmed her down, making her smile happily again; for a moment, she felt like stealing a smooch, then decided against it, telling herself that even though David hadn't asked any nosy questions yet, this didn't mean that he wouldn't find it awkward if they'd kiss right in front of him and his son.

Clearly thinking the same, the taller woman merely smiled back before she returned to the couch and sat down again, making herself comfortable just when Stephanie returned from the kitchen with the drinks.

"I thought we'd have had enough storms by now", she commented, handing the drinks to their guests, "there was quite the big one just last week, and now, another one?"

"Obviously", David gave back, shaking his head as well, then asked his wife if they had enough candles in case the power went out, the blonde woman nodding in reply – before she looked at the couple and asked if they had enough candles at their home, as well, prompting Willow to blush and Pat to clear her throat before the demon answered, telling her that they had no idea.

"You can have some from us", Stephanie offered with a smile, forcing Pat to bite her tongue as she nearly told her No – with her abilities, they certainly didn't need candles in case they light should go out, but it would seem weird to their neighbours if they'd decline this nice offer without giving a reason, and telling them the true one was out of the question.

"That'd be very nice", she thus just said, "but only if you have enough for yourselves."

"Of course", Stephanie reassured her, giving her another smile before she hurried off to get the candles; afterwards, they all made themselves comfortable again, passing the time with small talk and anecdotes from Sunnydale – harmless ones with no Slayage involved – until it was time for the couple to return to their home.

* * *

"Admit it", Willow spoke up the moment the door of their house had been closed and locked behind them, giggling slightly, "you were this close to telling Stephanie that we won't need candles because you can just light yourself up when she asked us that."

"Yes I was", Pat admitted, smirking when her girlfriend giggled even harder at those words, "but come on, it's understandable! After all those years I mostly spent around you guys and never had to worry about my choice of words."

"I understand", Willow reassured her, still smiling brightly, "I had to bite my tongue a few times too so nothing about witchcraft would slip out. And I have more practice at that than you, what with talking to people at college and stuff."

"Technically, I have more practice because of my age and spending most of those years amongst humans", Pat reminded her, "but I nearly slipped up anyway. Maybe because they were so nice."

"And they were not a deranged serial killer couple", Willow giggled while she moved to the large window and looked outside; just when they had arrived at their house, it had started to rain, and in the last few minutes, the rain had increased dramatically, falling from the sky in such a thick curtain that she could barely see the car anymore, even though it had been parked right in front of the house.

"Wow", she thus added, "that's quite the heavy rain out there."

"And now the wind is coming up, too", Pat added, moving to stand behind her, frowning at the way the trees were now swaying outside, "and quite strongly, too. Let's hope nothing dramatic will happen."

"Oh God yes", Willow agreed at once, turning away from the panorama window to face her girlfriend, smiling up at her while she wrapped both arms around her, the smile widening when the embrace was immediately returned, "after all, we came here to escape all the Sunnydale drama for a while. Even though for a moment, I feared we'd get some anyway when that kid asked you if you're a pirate."

"Aw, come on", Pat defended herself in reply, "I know as well as you do that I have quite the short-fused temper, but Billy's just a kid. He was just curious and childish, not nasty or something."

"I never knew you have a soft spot for kids", Willow teased in reply, giggling at the way the taller woman raised an eyebrow at her as an answer; before the demon had a chance to say anything though, the witch pulled her down for a kiss, her voice down to a seductive murmur when she spoke on afterwards.

"Now, what do you say, should we go and check out if that caretaker took proper care of the bedroom and the bed as well?"

"Oh, definitely", Pat gave back at once, with that well-known, lusty glint in her good eye; smiling, Willow grasped her hand, and together they made their way into the bedroom, the storm outside forgotten a short time later.

* * *

Several hours later, Willow got torn out of her sleep by the sound of the wind howling outside and the windows rattling in the frames; next to her, Pat was still slumbering soundly, clearly not as disturbed as the storm noises as her girlfriend was. Carefully, since she didn't want to wake the demon up, Willow got out of bed, wrapping herself up in the blanket as she moved to the window; outside, it seemed as if all Hell had broken lose, the storm so strong that the trees were not just swaying, but actually bending, the witch watching in shock how a rather large branch got torn off and flew several feet across the yard before it fell down.

"Oh my", she mumbled to herself, flinching back when a gust of wind hit the window and made it rattle in the frame again; she still had time to wonder if the windows would stand that kind of storm, then a branch hit the glass in front of her and it shattered, prompting her to jump back with a shriek. Behind her, Pat went from deeply asleep to fully awake within the blink of an eye, nearly jumping out of the bed, her expression alarmed as she hurried to her girlfriend's side, her voice filled with the same emotion when she asked her what had happened and if she was okay.

"I, I'm fine", Willow managed to reply after a few moments of shocked silence, "I think…"

"Come on, get away from that window", the demon nearly ordered in reply, taking tender hold of her shoulders and pulling her away from the glass shards on the ground, making her sit down at the edge of the bed before she hurried to the light switch next to the door, grumbling to herself when nothing happened at her impatient flipping of it.

"Electricity's out", she finally gave up, "must be the storm."

"The candles are on the kitchen table", Willow replied absent-mindedly; to her surprise, Pat chuckled slightly, then made the question of where the candles had been put obsolete by letting one of her hands flame up, bathing the room in flickering orange light.

"No need for candles", she then unnecessarily stated, her voice taking on a gentler tone when she once more asked the witch if she was sure that she was okay. Now that the shock was fading, the redhead actually could feel faint pain in her palm, and thus, raised her hand as an answer; momentarily, Pat looked worried, then clearly relaxed when she saw that it was just a cut in the ball of the thumb, blood welling from it, making it look worse than it was.

"I think it's just a cut", Willow now confirmed her thoughts, her voice trembling slightly, "it just startled me when that branch came flying through the window…"

"Understandable", Pat grimaced, "it nearly gave me a heart attack, but I was also deeply asleep. Well, we can't stay in here now with the window broken, and the thought of that big panorama window in the living room makes sleeping there a bad idea, so…"

"We should go down to the cellar", the redhead suggested in reply, regaining her composure, "we'll be safe there, that storm is really bad…"

"What a way to start a holiday", Pat sighed in reply, agreeing to the suggestion though; she gathered up her own blanket and the pillows, hoping that there'd be something in the cellar where they'd be able to get some sleep, then figured that it wouldn't hurt to take the mattresses along, just to be on the safe side, once more grateful for her strength when she picked them up.

Together, the couple made their way into the cellar, where they found a relatively comfortable area close to the hot water tank; while Willow took care of placing the mattresses and preparing them, Pat went back upstairs once more to find a band-aid for the cut in her hand, returning with a box of them in one hand a short time later – and with a thick candle, to the witch's amusement.

"I just realized I can't stay flamed up all the time, or I'll burn something", the demon admitted, "and now I feel bad for leaving you here in the dark."

"It was just a few minutes", Willow calmed her down while she lit up the candle and placed it on the ground, "no worries… I'm just glad you found the band-aids."

Nodding, Pat removed one of them from the package, then took care of the cut, briefly regretting that she had found nothing which could be used to clean it – before she shrugged it off, telling herself that they could get some disinfectant at the pharmacy in town in the next day.

"Think you can go back to sleep now?" she asked as soon as the cut had been taken care of; nodding, Willow made herself comfortable on the mattress, then gave her girlfriend a surprisingly cheerful smile, a twinkle in her eyes as well when she replied. "Yes… I do feel the need to be snuggled though."

"That I can easily provide", Pat smirked, putting out the candle by pinching the flame between her thumb and index finger; afterwards, she made herself comfortable on the mattress as well, then pulled the smaller woman into her arms, both of them drifting off into slumber again just a few minutes later.


	4. Chapter 4

The frantic knocking at the front door woke both of them up this time, Pat letting out a dismayed groan while Willow sat up, momentarily confused as she tried to remember why she was sleeping on a mattress on the ground next to the hot water tank; then, she remembered the storm and the shattered window, the thought of that also bringing back the memory of the cut in her palm, this thought leading to a grimace forming on her face as immediately, it started to hurt again.

"What the fuck is going on", Pat grumbled next to her, sitting up as well and tiredly rubbing her good eye; for once, the redhead didn't reprimand her for her choice of words, but just shrugged, then sighed as the knocking continued, now accompanied by David's voice calling out their names.

"He probably worries that we got swept away to Oz or something", she then mumbled, coming to her feet; after a moment, Pat did the same, and together, they left the cellar, the witch calling out that they'd be there in a minute as they hurried into the bedroom and put on the first clothes which fell into their hands. Once they were suitably dressed for the eyes of other people, they made their way to the front door; upon opening it, they found themselves looking at David, even though the sight behind him distracted Pat from him within seconds, her eye going wide as she chocked out a harsh curse.

"Fuck, fuck, fuck!" she repeated, as if to make sure both David and Willow had heard her, the young man glad that he hadn't brought Billy along, "the car! Giles is going to kill me!"

"I'm sure he won't kill you", Willow tried to calm her down, even though the sight of car – and the branch which had smashed right through the windshield and had torn open the driver seat – upset her quite much as well, "he's British, he's too composed to act on such impulses."

"Lucky me", Pat muttered, pushing past David without giving him as much as a second glance – and thus missing his briefly shocked look when he saw the scarred eye socket the patch had been hiding so far – and making her way to the car, looking as if she wanted to start wringing her hands when she got a closer look at the damage.

"There's a mechanic in town, if it helps", David offered, either getting over his shock surprisingly quickly or hiding it very well, "I'm gonna drive into town anyway, we need some stuff from the supermarket, if you want to, I can take you guys along."

"That would be very nice", Willow smiled, grateful for this offer, "we wanted to go there today, too, but, well, with the car like that…"

"Giles is going to kill me", Pat repeated, now sounding a bit calmer though; she sighed, then moved back to where David and her girlfriend were standing, giving the young man a glum look.

"Thanks for the offer though", she added, "when are you planning to leave?" "In about half an hour", David told her, "my wife is just writing up a list of what we need… Billy wants to come along too, he…"

He trailed off as he noticed the way Willow was looking at the lake, then turned to see what was so interesting there, the tall woman next to him doing the same; for a while, all three stood in silence as they watched a surprisingly thick bank of mist spread over the clear water, so white and compact that it was hiding everything else from sight.

"Do you have that here often?" Willow was the first one to speak up, eying the young man curiously, "that looks a bit… odd."

"Never seen it before", David gave back, missing the worried look Pat and Willow exchanged at hearing those words – even though they both were aware of the fact that maybe, they were just paranoid, they couldn't help but wonder if this might mean something bad.

"Probably some sort of weird natural phenomena", the young man now added, making them both nod, even though they both weren't all too sure about this, "and, well, I better get going back home to see how far Steph's with that list, she's a bit freaked out because we lost two windows to that storm, as well. You didn't get hurt, right?"

"Just a little cut", Willow reassured him, once more touched by his concern – after all, they just had met the day before, and already, he was offering them a ride to town and asked if they had gotten through the storm okay.

"I'll just pick you up with the car in half an hour or so", David now smiled, making them both nod again; they thanked him again for thinking of them, then returned into the house to make themselves presentable for the small town population while David headed back to his home, no one of them having the slightest idea what they would be getting into the moment they'd arrive at the supermarket.

* * *

On the way to the town, they were passed by several police cars, speeding down the road way over the speed limit, with their lights and sirens blaring; shortly afterwards, a fire truck passed them in a similar manner, and to top it off, an army truck followed suit two minutes later.

"You guys got a base here somewhere?" Pat wanted to know curiously from the back seat, watching the truck vanish in the distance; without taking his eyes off the road, mindful of any damage that might have been done, David nodded, sounding slightly amused when he replied. "Yeah, outta town though, not right there in the middle. Better not mention it to certain people though, some of the townsfolk are sure that they are doing strange experiments up there and if you get them talking about it, it never stops."

"Like Frankenstein?" Billy wanted to know from his seat next to "the pirate lady", as he had referred to the demon when they had left, along with the claim that he wanted to sit next to her, the obvious liking he had taken to her making it easy for her to ignore the fact that he had called her a pirate yet again; chuckling, David shook his head, still fully focused on the road as he answered. "No, honey, not like Frankenstein. I'll tell you later, okay?"

"Okay", Billy accepted surprisingly fast for an eight-year-old, behaviour that was quickly explained though when he turned towards Pat and curiously asked her what had happened to her eye, a question that surely had been burning on his tongue ever since he had seen her.

"Billy", David scolded him before the black haired woman had a chance to answer, "that's not polite, shame."

"No, it's okay", Pat reassured him, once more surprising Willow with her patience – she never had seen the demon interact with kids before, but she never would have guessed that she'd be so patient and enduring.

"I had a nasty accident", the black haired woman now told the kid, making the witch glad that she wasn't retelling the true story of how it had happened, "but I'm not gonna tell you any details or you'll have bad dreams."

"Awww", Billy pouted, again accepting this without any nagging though; he leaned back into the seat and looked out the window, squinting slightly before he spoke up again, now addressing his father. "Daddy, the mist from the lake is here, too, did you notice?"

"Of course", David muttered, not taking his focus off the road for a second, driving not exactly made easier by the mist; a few minutes later, he pulled into the supermarket's parking lot though without any unpleasant incidents, the four of them climbing out of the car as soon as he had killed the engine.

"Hey, I wanna call my wife before we get in there", he let them know once he had locked his car, "she was a bit freaked by that mist before we left, I just wanna make sure she's okay. You guys can go inside in the meantime if you want."

"Can I go with them?" Billy demanded to know, prompting David to give them a questioning look and nodding after they both had agreed, both Willow and he smiling when the little boy looked up at Pat again afterwards, clearly idolizing her for reasons unknown. "Can I hold your hand? Daddy says I have to hold the hand of an adult when I cross the parking lot or the street."

"Um, sure", Pat gave back after a moment of surprise, clearly not having an idea why the kid was so keen on her either; beaming at her, Billy grasped her hand, the demon glaring at her girlfriend when she saw how the corners of her mouth twitched at the sight.

"Not a word", she whispered to the redhead, making sure Billy wouldn't hear her; with mock shock, Willow raised both hands and put on the most innocent smile she could manage, then giggled after all, making Pat roll her good eye as they made their way to the supermarket's entrance. Moments later, Willow was forced to hold back her laughter again as her girlfriend bumped right against the entrance door, the glass trembling in the frame; for a second, she was stunned, then realized what had happened – the power had gone out, something which most likely could be blamed on the storm, and thus, the sliding door hadn't opened as it was supposed to when someone approached it.

"Poor you", the redhead consoled her embarrassed partner as soon as she could be sure she wouldn't laugh, "did that hurt?"

"Just my pride", Pat muttered, pushing the doors open manually, momentarily taken aback by the way the bald guy standing behind one of the cashier girls was staring at her – until she remembered that, without electricity to open them, the doors were supposed to be quite hard to open, and she had used her demon strength to do just that without even a moment of obvious trouble.

Deciding to ignore it, she flashed the guy a smirk, the bald man returning the smile slightly nervous a moment later; the other people standing in line at the cash register – a horribly long line, since the poor girls working the registers had to do it manually with the help of a pen, a notepad and a calculator – were openly staring at her as well, something she blamed on the eyepatch though and shrugged off, by now more than used to that reaction.

"Wow, one storm and people start hoarding", Willow commented as they made their way to the first aisle after grabbing one shopping cart for themselves and securing one for David, "let's hope they left any of the good stuff."

"Yeah", the demon agreed, raising an eyebrow when a thin lady pushed past her quite rudely, "imagine this would happen in L.A. or something, they'd tear the store down."

"Hey guys", David called out as he caught up to them, before Willow could reply anything, "thanks for checking me a cart, wow, that place is packed, and I ran against the door. It didn't open."

"Me too, if it helps", Pat smirked, making the young man grin back – before he gestured at the glass front of the store and the parking lot outside, sounding a bit worried when he went on. "Well, the payphone wasn't working and I forgot my cell, so I couldn't reach my wife, plus that mist is spreading all over and getting quite thick, so I suggest we get done quickly, or driving home might be quite hard."

To this, they both nodded their reply, handing the cart they had grabbed for David to him before Pat grasped theirs; before she started pushing it through the aisles though, she looked out the glass front once more, frowning when she saw how thick the mist had become by now – and that it had swallowed up the whole parking lot, only the cars closest to the supermarket visible anymore.

"This is weird", she whispered to Willow, flinching when, as if to underline her words, a siren went off somewhere in the distance, as if to underline her words; next to her, Willow nodded, looking slightly worried as well while she watched how the mist crept even closer to the glass, a sense of deep dread filling her for reasons she couldn't quite figure out.

"I don't like it", she then mumbled, keeping her voice low so the people around wouldn't hear and would think she was some sort of lunatic, "it's… I don't know, it's just…"

Before she could come up with the proper word, the doors to the supermarket suddenly were pushed open again, with so much force that they rattled in the frame; one of the cashier desk girls shrieked, prompting both Willow and Pat to look her way, their eyes widening simultaneously when they saw the elder man stumble towards the line of people, blood practically pouring from his nose and a cut in his lip.

"There's something in the mist!" he howled, sounding as if he was close to hysterics, his eyes wide and scared, "don't go out there, there's something in the mist…!"

He stumbled over his own feet and nearly fell, only saved from hitting the ground by the fast reaction by a man close to him who managed to catch him in the last second, his eyes staring at the crowd in front of him for a few more seconds – before they rolled back into his head and he fainted, leaving them with his ominous message, several of the customers casting nervous glances into the mist as they asked themselves what was happening and if those dreadful words had been true.


	5. Chapter 5

It didn't take long until the guy came around again, the bald guy – the store's vice manager, as David whispered to Willow and Pat, a kind-hearted guy named Ollie – kneeling next to him when he opened his eyes and looking at him in worry.

"Are you okay?" he demanded to know, even though it was obvious that the man wasn't – he still looked terrified, and his nose was still bleeding, even though by now, the pour had died down to a thin trickle.

"What did you mean when you said there's something in the mist?" another guy, scruffy-looking and in a pair of oil-stained overalls, the nametag on the chest identifying him as Myron, demanded to know; in response, the guy sat up, nervously running both hands through his white hair, not noticing that he turned several of the strands red in the process.

"There's something out there", he repeated, now not sounding just terrified, but also confused and helpless, "it… it hit me, and I think it got Johnny!"

"Is he drunk?" some other customer demanded to know, sounding disgusted, "this is ridiculous. Something in the mist, yeah, right."

With those words, he grabbed his bags and started to head for the exit, ignoring it when several people called out to him; exchanging worried looks, Willow and Pat watched him go after he had pushed the doors open with some trouble, the mist swallowing him up after just a few steps.

"I've never seen such a thick mist before", the demon mumbled to her girlfriend, unaware of the fact that this only increased the redhead's worries – after all, her partner had been alive for a long time already, and thus had seen many things in her life, the fact that so far, she hadn't encountered such a strangely thick mist raising her concern about this to new heights. Before she could tell the taller woman about this though, a scream suddenly came up outside, the voice rising in wordless terror; then, it ended abruptly, not just fading away, but ending all at once, as if someone had silenced the one who had been shouting within the blink of an eye.

Without even noticing fully what she was doing, Willow moved closer to her girlfriend, feeling a bit calmer when at once, the demon put one arm around her; by now, they had faced enough horrible creatures to know that something very bad was going on outside, the black haired woman's mind racing as she tried to figure out what might be going on and how they could get out of this.

For a few moments, she still had the hope that the old guy with the bloody nose really had been drunk and that nothing was waiting out there in the mist, ready to devour anyone who stepped outside; before she could come up with a reason that would rationalize that scream away though, something dark and vaguely round came flying out of the thick mist and hit the glass front of the store, the people closest to it screaming in shock and terror at the sight, a few of them even jumping back from the glass.

"Oh Jesus", a woman who had been standing close to the spot where the object had hit pressed out, turning away from the window with her face suddenly dreadfully pale, "oh God…"

She bent over stiffly at the waist as if she was taking a bow, a sight which might have been comical during other circumstances; for a few seconds, she remained in that position, one hand clamped over her mouth – before she lost the fight and threw up, prompting the store manager to cry out in dismay and disgust.

"Somebody clean that up!" he then shouted, ignoring the looks he was receiving from Ollie and the girl behind whom he had been standing, "or the smell will spread all over the store! Hey! You! Bag boy! What's your name again?"

"Norm, Sir", the teenager replied, his eyes moving back and forth between the manager, the puddle of puke on the ground and the thing which had hit the window, disgust showing on his face when the manager told him to go to the backroom and get something to clean this mess from there.

"Yes, Sir", he still mumbled, clearly not daring to talk back; while he hurried off, Pat told Willow to stay where she was, then moved to the window where the object had hit, grimacing when she saw what it was. Quickly, she made her way back to the witch, keeping her voice low so David and especially Billy wouldn't hear her.

"That thing that just hit the window? It's that guy's head", she whispered, pulling the redhead closer again when she saw the shocked look on her face, only to end up distracted from giving comfort when David moved up to her and asked her if that thing was what he thought it was.

"Yeah", she sighed out, looking towards the window again; looking worried, David opened his mouth to say something, but before he could even get the first word out, the ground beneath their feet suddenly started trembling, violently enough to make several people lose their footing and end up on the floor, various items of the store's stock falling out of the shelves, a few of them crashing and breaking. As if that wasn't enough noise already, a loud, female voice suddenly rose over the tremor, so full of fervour that it made several people grimace.

"This is the whirlwind!" she cried out, not even noticing how those who had been standing close to her moved away from her, looking from one customer to the next, her eyes burning. "For years this world has been sowing the wind, and now it shall reap the whirlwind!"

"Oh great", Pat muttered under her breath, "it's not enough that we are stuck here, we have to be stuck here with a religious fundie?"

"Talk about bad luck", Willow mumbled, glad that at least, the ground had stopped shaking by now; still she kept clinging to her girlfriend, throwing nervous glances at the mist beyond the glass front every and now and then, asking herself what horrors were waiting in there for them and how they were supposed to get out of this one.

* * *

"Daddy, I wanna go home", Billy whined half an hour after the earthquake, not really surprising his father – so far, the boy had been surprisingly quiet and patient, but it only had been a question when he'd start to get uncomfortable, not if he'd do so.

"I know", David tried to calm his son down, "and we'll leave soon. As soon as this nasty mist is gone."

"Okay", Billy mumbled, then spotted the kind elder lady who sometimes babysat him and asked if he could go to her, smiling when his father nodded; he trotted off, and the moment he was out of earshot, David focused on the couple next to him, keeping his voice low when he addressed them. "I know I'll sound like an idiot now, but… There's something really bad going on here."

Biting her tongue, Pat held back a snarky remark about how this was quite the well-done observation, telling herself that those people here probably never had had any contact with anything more supernatural than X-Files on TV; thus, she just nodded, noticing how Willow threw her a short, but grateful look and raising an eyebrow, asking herself if the witch really did know her so well by now.

"If there's really something out there, we can't go", David now went on, making the demon wonder if he had already forgotten about the head lacking the body it usually came attached to, a question that was answered when the young man spoke on though. "And clearly, there is something out there, as that poor guy more or less proved for us… So… We need to figure something out."

"Yup", the demon agreed in the most neutral voice she could, even though she wondered why he'd come to her with this – after all, he obviously knew most of the people here for a long time, and had only met her yesterday, her mind speeding up again as she asked herself if he had noticed so quickly that something was a bit off about her humanity.

"I'm not sure if there are many people here suitable for that", David went on, now sounding a bit sheepish, as if he was embarrassed about what he had to say. "They are, well, typical townsfolk, not so good with handling such peculiar crises. You still seem kinda level-headed though, so I thought maybe we could come up with something…"

"I've been trying to do that ever since all this started", Pat admitted after a moment of wondering how she should react to that, then figured that it couldn't hurt to appear as "level-headed" – as long as no one saw through her masquerade and what she really was, the demon not wanting to imagine how they might react to her in a situation that was so unpleasant already.

"But how do you know I'm level-headed?" she went on, with a small smirk forming on her face, "maybe I'm screaming inside in terror and just keep up a good façade."

"I don't think so", David calmly replied, surprising her once more when he gestured at Willow as he spoke up, the redhead raising an eyebrow at his words as well. "And neither is she. You're both remarkably calm."

"We're both very level-headed people", Willow finally made herself say, not wanting to sit there in silence much longer, "and the moment we come up with something, we'll tell you. Is there anyone else here around whom you'd trust in such a situation?"

"Ollie, maybe", David gave back after a moment, gesturing at the bald vice-manager of the store, "at least he seems calm so far."

"What's with the bible thumping lady", Pat changed the topic, keeping her voice low again as she nodded into the general direction of said lady, who by now had sat down on the floor and was reading her bible with great concentration, seemingly not noticing what was going on around her.

"That's Mrs Carmody", the young man answered, with clear disdain in his voice that made both Willow and Pat smirk, "local fundamentalist and, at times, crackpot. Every now and then, she collects negative points with me for driving my wife crazy with her theories and superstitions."

"Oh, just what we need in here then in such a situation", Pat dryly commented, throwing the lady an annoyed look – she never had reacted all too well to those fervently religious types, something which wasn't a real surprise to anyone though who knew about her true nature. "Let's hope she doesn't drive everyone batshit crazy."

"Usually, people don't take her all too seriously", David let her know, making her smirk and Willow giggle with his next words. "Once, she even tried to chase the pastor away from the pulpit, claiming that he was doing it all wrong."

"Charming", Willow brought out between giggles; nodding, David smirked as well, his smirk widening when Pat spoke up. "Why did we have to get stuck in a non-smoking store? I'm dying for a cigarette."

"Well, technically, the whole supermarket is non-smoking", a new voice came from behind her, making her jump and turn around, only to find herself face to face with Ollie, the bald man smiling up at her, clearly impressed by her height, "but you can go to the storeroom, just don't tell Bud, okay?"

"You're awesome", Pat sighed out, then excused herself and hurried towards the door leading to the storeroom while Willow stayed where she was, making herself comfortable on the tiled floor as she waited for her girlfriend's return, her mind still fully focused on their situation and on finding a solution for it.


	6. Chapter 6

Upon entering the storeroom, Pat once more was glad about her ability to see quite well even in the dark; the storage had no windows, and she didn't want to waste time with searching for a light switch. Instead, she quickly found her cigarettes, not bothering with a lighter since no one was around back here to see her anyway as she lit it up, hurriedly making the flame on her finger disappear when she heard the door open behind her, raising an eyebrow when she saw Norm the bag boy enter.

Obviously, he hadn't expected to find someone here, since he looked quite surprised after he had switched on the light and had seen her; then, he shrugged it off and pointed at the cigarette, smirking slightly as he spoke up. "You know, Miss, if Bud catches you smoking in here, he'll get mad."

"I'll just have to hope you won't rattle me out then", Pat gave back, chuckling at his response. "I won't, but… Can I bum one?"

"Technically, you're too young", the demon helpfully informed him, "but lucky for you, I'm a morally ambiguous person who doesn't care about that, so there you go."

With those words, she threw him her cigarette pack, the teenager giving her a bright smile as he caught it and pulled one out; smirking as well, the black haired woman handed him her lighter, Norm hurriedly lighting the cigarette up before he gave the pack back.

"Thanks", he sighed after the first deep drag, "that supermarket is only the place in this itty bitty town where you can buy cigs, and of course, they know I'm not old enough yet, so I always have to bum 'em from others. I was so hoping you'd smoke here when I saw you go through that door."

"Well, lucky you then", Pat smirked, bringing the cigarette up to her mouth again afterwards; before she could take a drag from it though, something suddenly banged against the loading deck door at the other end of the room, making her jump and nearly lose her grip on the cigarette.

"You heard that too, right?" Norm demanded to know in a shaky voice, staring at the loading deck door as if he expected it to break open any second; nodding, the demon told him to get David and Willow without looking away from the door once, rolling her good eye when the teenager asked her in a small voice who Willow was.

"The redhead who was next to me the whole time", she then explained impatiently, briefly looking at him; she practically could see the light bulb appear over his head, and he nodded before he turned to hurried off, stopping again though when Pat snapped out his name.

"Leave the cigarette here, or Bud's gonna get mad", she informed him, glad when the little jab had worked the way she had wanted it to and he smiled slightly – the last thing she needed now was that he ran out there and made everyone notice him, thus making the atmosphere even more tensed than it already was.

"And keep the volume down", she still added, "we don't need the whole store to know, not yet. Maybe it's nothing and it'll just make people unnecessarily crazy then."

"Yeah, good point", Norm agreed, clearly impressed by how she handled this; he gave her a look that almost was admiring, then put his cigarette out on the ground and hid it behind a palette of boxes before he hurried outside to get David and Willow, Pat impatiently pacing up and down as she waited for them join her, smoking her cigarette so quickly that it was gone within just two minutes.

Fighting down the urge to light another one, she hid the butt just as Norm had done; the moment she straightened up again, something banged against the loading deck door once more, the demon grimacing to herself as she imagined all possible horrors, just held outside by the thin corrugated metal the door was made of. Finally, after what had seemed like hours, the door leading to the store's main area opened, and David entered, followed by Willow, Norm, Myron, Ollie and another guy Pat had seen in the supermarket, but didn't know the name of; momentarily, she was annoyed at this mass of people, then shrugged it off and just gestured at the door, sounding remarkably calm when she spoke up. "There's something out there, Norm and I both heard it. Just be quiet for a few moments now, I'm sure it'll—"

This time, whatever it was banged against the door hard enough to make it rattle in the frame, all of them jumping; instinctively, Willow moved closer to her girlfriend, giving her a scared look, the demon giving her best to return one that was reassuring, even though it didn't quite work out.

"What do we do about this?" David wanted to know, his voice quivering just enough to let the others notice; to his dismay, no one answered at first, then Myron spoke up, sounding quite insecure as well. "Um… Should we look what it is…?"

"Not sure if this is a good idea", Willow mumbled, looking towards the metal door again when it once more was hit so hard that it shook visibly, "but we can't just stand around here either and wait for it to go away…"

"We need weapons", Pat decided, giving Ollie an inquiring look as she asked if they had anything suitable for that purpose; to her dismay, he shrugged helplessly, scratching the back of his head as he replied. "All I can think of is the axe, you know, the fire axe…"

"Get that", the demon almost ordered, momentarily not caring if the fact that she seemed to know how to handle this might seem suspicious to the others; if anyone thought that her behaviour was weird, they didn't mention it, Ollie just nodding before he hurried off to get the axe.

"Are you sure opening that door is a good idea?" the guy who had come in right behind Myron demanded to know, sounding worried; shrugging, the black haired woman threw another worried look at the door, then focused on Norm and asked him if he knew how to open it and if that would work without electricity.

"Yeah", the teenager replied, "you just have to push that button over there. I still don't know if this is a good idea though…"

"Well", Pat gave back, eying the door again, "if I'm not mistaken, the hitting got stronger since we noticed it, so we might not have a choice in the end… Where is Ollie with that axe?"

"Here I am", Ollie answered the question about his whereabouts himself, holding the axe up as he hurried back to the little group; he looked lost about whom he should hand it to for a moment, then Myron stepped forward, the bald man looking relieved when he handed it to the mechanic.

"Okay", he mumbled, gripping the axe tightly, "so we open now, or…?"

"We should", David muttered, throwing an unhappy look toward the door, "what if it's not some monster out there, but someone who needs help?"

"Only one way to find out", Myron's friend stated, then pressed the button which opened the door; they all held their breath as it slowly started to rattle upwards, Pat moving in front of Willow without even thinking about it, something which turned out to be a good idea as moments later, all Hell broke loose.

* * *

The second the gap between the slowly rising door and the cement ground had become big enough, a tentacle as thick as the arm of a well-muscled man came shooting through it, moving blindly over the ground, prompting everyone in the room to let out sounds of shock and horror in various levels of volume; they all jumped back, then Myron remembered that he was holding an axe and moved forward again, bringing the weapon up and taking careful aim.

"Close the door!" Ollie shouted, watching with wide-eyed horror how even more of the shockingly thick, slimy tentacles started to push through the gap, the suckers on the bottom site pulsating visibly; nodding without taking his gaze off the wriggling horror, the man next to the button started to grope for it blindly, but before his searching fingers could find it, one of the tentacles suddenly shot towards him with shocking speed and wrapped around his ankle, a shocked cry escaping him when he was jerked off his feet.

"Grab him, grab him!" David shouted as the tentacle started to drag the screeching man towards the door; since Pat was the one closest to him, she did just that, managing to get a grip with both arms around the man's chest, a low grunt escaping her when she nearly got jerked off her feet as well.

"Don't just stand there!" David snapped at the others as he daringly hopped over a blindly groping tentacle and grasped Pat around the waist, "help, this thing is awfully strong…!"

Dropping the axe, Myron jumped to do just that, taking a firm hold of David; all three grit their teeth as they tried to pull the by now hysterically screaming man back, shocked at how strong the creature all those tentacles belonged to was, all three of them letting out small, but grateful puffs of air when the door came to a crunching halt, for reasons unknown. Holding back the urge to just fire a spell at it, knowing that she couldn't trust all the witnesses in here to keep quiet, Willow rushed for the axe instead, picking it up seconds before another groping tentacle could snatch it; the tip of the searching thing nearly touched her foot, and with a little cry, she jumped back, then told herself to keep her calm as she spun around and rushed to the door, ignoring the startled shout of her girlfriend.

Holding her breath, the witch raised the axe high above her head, then brought it down on the tentacle which had grabbed the poor guy with all her might; the sharp blade cut through the appendage easily, but moments later, the redhead saw that it had been in vain, as by now, two more of the tentacles had firmly wrapped around the shouting and thrashing man's arms and legs.

"Get away from that door!" Pat now snapped at her girlfriend, something Willow gladly did when she saw that more and more tentacles where trying to get into the storeroom, one of them as thick as her upper leg; still clutching the axe, she tried to get to the button which would close the door, fighting down her fear and disgust at the writhing mass of tentacles blocking her path there, holding her breath once more as she brought up the axe.

"Don't let it take me, don't let it take me, please!" the man howled as he got jerked forward another few feet, closer to the door, then was pulled back again by the combined strength of the three people holding on to him and each other; they all were gritting their teeth too tightly to answer him, but the fact that Pat tightened her grip on him was enough as an answer for him, his voice hoarse as he continued sobbing and pleading her to not let go of him.

Moments later, his words turned into agonized howls as the tentacles tightened their grip on him as well and something inside his leg snapped audibly; feeling sick, Willow gave her best to ignore it as she tried to hack away enough of the gruesome things so she could get to the button, tiny pearls of sweat rolling down her cheeks by now.

"Come on, don't you fucking give up on me now", Pat snapped as she felt David's grip on her loosen and how the muscles in his arms trembled; before he could come up with an answer though, whatever was the owner of those tentacles clearly had enough of playing, since one of them suddenly shot up and smacked the demon right across the chest with painful aim, the uncanny strength of the thing putting enough force into the blow that she was thrown backwards, losing her grip on the still howling man.

His screams increased when the tentacles took the chance given and dragged him towards the loading door with shocking speed; somehow, he managed to bring his arms up enough to he could grab the door, the knuckles on his hands standing out whitely as he held on for dear life.

"Help me!" he howled, tears streaming down his cheeks, "please, don't let… don't… help me…"

Ignoring the stinging pain in her chest, Pat came to her feet again and rushed forward to grab the screaming man once more; she managed to get a hold of his collar, then the tentacles gave one final strong jerk, his fingers slipped off the door and, with a final agonized howl, he was dragged off into the mist outside, his shirt tearing with a noise none of the men and women in the room ever would forget, the only thing he left behind being the small scrap of fabric the demon still was grasping.

A second after the man had vanished in the mist, Willow finally reached the button and smashed her hand on it as hard as she could; for a few horrible moments, nothing happened, making all their heartbeats speed up as they had time enough to wonder if the door had broken for good, then it slowly started moving downwards, the tentacles pulling back when they felt the pressure of the door increase.

Finally, after what had seemed like an eternity, the door closed fully with an audible crunch; the tentacle Willow had cut off with the axe twitched once, as if it was reacting to the sound, then laid still, only to twitch again when the axe fell out of the redhead's suddenly numb fingers and produced an audible clang as it hit the ground.

Letting out a shaky breath, Willow brought one hand up to cover her mouth, suddenly not sure if she would burst into tears or throw up any moment; only now, she fully realized what had happened to the poor guy, the sound of his shirt ripping playing in her mind over and over again, interspersed with the noise the bones in his leg had made when the tentacles had crushed them.

"Oh God", she brought out as a terrible thought hit her, her voice trembling, her eyes wide and filled with fear when she looked up at the others, her next words making their eyes double in size as well. "Did you see how long and thick some of those… those things were? What in God's name were they attached to…? And what if this thing… tries to get in here…?"


	7. Chapter 7

"We can't tell anyone about what just happened here", Ollie decided once they all had calmed down enough again to speak without having to fear that they might end up crying, puking or both any moment; to his relief, they all agreed, even the still clearly upset Willow, the redhead standing as close to her girlfriend as possible, the taller woman holding her and rubbing her back soothingly, by now none of them caring anymore what any of the men might think. "If they hear about this, they'll just panic and try to run outside, and who knows what will be waiting for them there…"

"Something big with many tentacles", Pat muttered, noticing how David was looking at her as she spoke, but shrugging it off, telling herself that he probably was just freaked out as they all were and had focused on the first thing he had seen to keep his calm, with her simply being the first person he had laid eyes on.

"You're right", she now went on, ignoring the way David was staring at her, "they might panic if they hear about this, but what if they ask where Myron's buddy went?"

"That thing got him", Myron replied tonelessly, for the first time since his friend had been jerked outside speaking up, a shell-shocked look on his stubbly face, his gaze slowly coming up from the piece of tentacle on the ground and focusing on the demon. "It got him because you let go of him, you bitch!"

"What?" Pat gave back, too flabbergasted by this sudden shift in his mood to react any differently, the others staring at the mechanic as well, not believing their ears.

"You let go of him!" Myron accused her again, the shell-shocked look vanishing from his face, only to be replaced with anger, the expression prompting Pat to let go of Willow and to step in front of her, suddenly sure that any moment, fists would fly.

"We let go just as much as she did", David now tried to intervene, clearly not liking the thought of the mechanic attacking the black haired woman, "and you saw how that thing hit her! Do you think you would've been able to hold on then?"

"She let go of him", Myron gave back, ignoring the rather good point David had made; and then, before anyone else could say something, and maybe try to talk him out of this, he charged forward with a hoarse shout, bringing up his fists.

For a moment, Pat considered just taking the punch, with the hope that this would calm him down; then, she decided against it though, telling herself that she didn't need to take such crap from that guy, not noticing how David frowned to himself as he watched her catch the clumsy punch Myron threw at her with ease, then use the momentum he still had thanks to his wild charge to force him forward and against the wall, jerking his arm up behind his back when he tried to break free.

"Okay, if you don't want me to break your arm, you listen to me now", she then snarled into his ear, tightening her grip on his arm for emphasis when he tried to break free once more in reply. "You know as well as anyone else in here that we tried our best to save your buddy, and I'm sorry it didn't work. If you want to keep this secret though, and I think you'll agree with David that this is necessary, how do you want to explain your broken bones to the people outside?"

Even though this didn't sound very convincing to the ears of David and Willow, the only ones close enough to understand what she was saying, it seemed to work on Myron; he struggled for a few more seconds, then suddenly grew limp, the anger vanishing from his eyes as they filled with tears.

"He was my friend", he pressed out, the chocked sound of his voice prompting the demon to let go of him and take a step back, allowing him to turn around, "he was my buddy and now he's gone…"

"I'm sorry", the black haired woman repeated; he kept looking at her for a few more moments, then sniffled and wiped his nose on his sleeve, mumbling an apology for calling her a bitch and attacking her afterwards.

"Never mind that", Pat shrugged it off, surprising her girlfriend with how amiable she reacted to this – after all, she had punched out people for much less than that, "just try to calm down now, I know it's hard, but if you go out there like that, they'll immediately know something's wrong."

Myron nodded in reply, sniffled again, then managed to regain his composure; he even had the decency to look ashamed when he shuffled out of the storeroom and back to the main area of the supermarket, the others following him a few moments later, David never taking his eyes off the black haired woman, looking as if he was deep in thought about a rather unpleasant topic.

* * *

When they stepped out of the storeroom again, the first thing they heard was the annoyed voice of the store manager, reprimanding several people who had started eating stuff from the shelves; with a sigh, Ollie shook his head and hurried over to calm his colleague down, David moving away from the group after a moment as well to check on his son, relieved to see that his babysitter had kept him quite busy and even had managed to make him eat a peach, now showing him how to make a little man with the peach's stone and a bunch of pipe cleaners.

After a moment, Willow spotted Myron as well, shaking her head to herself at the sight – he had made his way straight to the large coolers and had helped himself to a beer, ignoring it when Bud called out to him that this was thieving while he opened the can and took a big gulp of it, then burped loudly, prompting the witch to grimace in disgust.

"Poor guy", Pat showed some sympathy for the mechanic, to the obvious surprise of her girlfriend, "he was really upset about his friend."

"I'm surprised you didn't get more upset about him when he tried to hit you", the redhead gave back, choosing her words wisely since Norm was still standing close to them, looking a bit lost, "I was halfway expecting you to knock him out."

"Oh please", Pat gave back, sounding a bit offended, "that guy's like what, in his forties? He couldn't knock me out if I'd let him have a free swing, so who cares."

"I know this is totally not the right moment to say this, but that was so awesome when you caught his fist", Norm started to gush as an answer to that, making Willow smirk slightly, "and how you pushed him against the wall then, so cool! Like something from a Jackie Chan movie!"

"Um, well, I know martial arts", Pat lied in reply, holding back the urge to frown when the teenager stared at her in admiration again; then, Bud bellowed his name and he flinched before he hurried to his boss, once more looking back over his shoulder and at her though, with shining eyes.

"Someone's got a crush on you", Willow teased, giggling when her girlfriend let out a snort in reply, unable to hold back her next remark. "Should I get jealous?"

"Oh yes, totally", the demon dryly gave back, "I'm gonna take him back to the storeroom and we'll do it like rabbits behind the dog food."

"Ew, Sweetie, gross", Willow grimaced, pouting when her girlfriend pointed out to her that she had started it; then, as if it was trying to lighten the mood even more than that little banter just had, her stomach suddenly grumbled audibly, making her grimace while the redhead smirked, once more making sure that she wouldn't choose any wrong words as she spoke up. "Seems like fighting got your appetites up again… We better find you something to eat."

"Yup", Pat agreed, "if that guy over there doesn't try to eat me when he sees it, he's going nuts enough as it is already."

"He'll have to deal with it", Willow gave back, unimpressed, "we don't know how long we might have to stay here, and he can't expect us to starve next to so much food, can he?"

"Good point", Pat had to admit, "even though I don't like the thought of having to stay here so long that we might be in danger of starving if we don't eat."

"Neither do I", Willow sighed, then dropped the topic by grabbing her girlfriend's hand and dragging her through the aisles until Pat spotted one of her favourite snacks and made a beeline for it, the witch rolling her eyes when she saw what her partner was so keen on.

"Seriously, that's no proper food", she then scolded, watching how the demon grabbed two packages of beef jerky and tore one of them open, eating half of it with one big bite, at least taking the time to chew and swallow before she offered to eat some fruit afterwards.

"You better", Willow admonished, to the taller woman's relief distracted from her choice of nutrition a moment later when Billy came rushing around the corner and nearly ran into her, followed by the babysitter, the elder woman apologizing profusely the moment she saw the redhead.

"I told him it's not a good idea to play catch here", she then informed the couple, "but he wouldn't listen. Billy, now you see why this is a bad idea, right?"

"Yes, but I'm bored", Billy mumbled, amusing Willow once more with the way he scooted closer to Pat, again displaying his strange liking for her, "and I wanna go home and be with Mommy. Do you think my Mommy is okay?"

"I'm sure she is", Pat gave back after a moment of hesitation, then offered him some of the beef jerky to keep him from asking any further questions; to her relief, he took some of it and started chewing, making himself comfortable on the ground, the witch and the demon doing the same a moment later.

"Do you wanna play a game with me?" he asked the black haired woman, smiling when she nodded and asked him what game, hoping it wouldn't be catch or, even worse, "I spy with my little eye"; to her relief, he suggested Rock, Paper, Scissors, smiling happily when he asked her if he had to explain it and she told him that this wasn't necessary.

Leaving them to their game, Willow got up from the ground again and starting moving through the aisles until she found David; he was standing close to the hygiene articles, watching Mrs Carmody read the bible, something she didn't do just by herself anymore, but to an audience of two, two young women who were practically hanging on her lips.

"She's found an audience, huh", she commented after watching for a while in silence, listening to the woman read about Armageddon and its not so pleasant side effects; with a sigh, David nodded, then looked at her, keeping his voice low when he replied. "She did, but as long as she just reads… Can I ask you something?"

"Sure", the redhead gave back, curious what this was about – he sounded as if he was embarrassed about something, but his embarrassment wasn't big enough to stop him.

"Your girlfriend", he started, only to fall silent again a moment later, his eyes widening almost comically, "wait, she is your girlfriend, right? I don't wanna jump to any wrong conclusions or something, but…"

"She is", Willow confirmed, smiling slightly, "and yeah? What about her?"

"She seems… really strong", David finally found the right words, not noticing how the redhead's heart started to beat faster – after all, both Pat and she knew that they couldn't let the townspeople find out what they really were, but this had been the last thing on their minds during the situation in the storeroom, even though she had managed to keep herself from casting any spells.

"I mean, I was right there with her when that thing had grabbed poor Burton", he went on when the witch didn't reply anything, "and I had a hard time holding on, and, well, I'm not the weakest guy as you can see… But I swear she had an even better grip on him than I had. And, when Myron tried to hit her… Yeah, it was clumsy, but still, it was damn quick how she caught his fist."

"Oh she does martial arts", Willow gave back, the lie by now used so often that it didn't even feel like one anymore – apart from the fact that technically, it wasn't even a real lie, since Pat did know some moves from various of those arts, it was just leaving out the small detail about her demonic side and the strength that came with it.

"I see", David replied, even though he didn't sound fully convinced; before he could say anything else though, Billy came running up to him and proudly told him that he had beaten Pat ten times in a row, the black haired woman joining the group a moment later, giving the boy a smirk while she nodded, gesturing at the kid as she spoke up. "If there was some sort of Rock, Paper, Scissors championship, he could go there and win the whole thing."

"Well, of course, he learned from the best", David smiled, giving his son a proud look; then, they all looked out the glass front again as if they were following some sort of silent command, the mist outside still as thick as it had been when it al had started, once more making them all wonder how much longer they would have to remain here.


	8. Chapter 8

Several hours later, the store's butcher had brought the manager's wrath upon himself by heating up the grill and beginning to grill chicken and beefsteak for the by now quite hungry people caught in the supermarket; at first, Bud had tried to stop him, then had given in when the voices of the customers grew too angry, now standing in a corner with a notepad and writing down who was eating what with a pout on his face, refusing to accept any of the food even when Ollie brought him some.

"Wow, that guy's tight-assed", Pat commented, only to fall silent in shock when she realized that Billy had heard her; the little boy gave her a wide-eyed look, prompting his father to tell him that he should forget what he had heard immediately while Willow reprimanded her girlfriend with the usual "Language", the way she said it and the way the black haired woman rolled her good eye in response making David smile, their behaviour reminding him so much of Stephanie and himself that it was almost eerie.

"You guys have been together for a while, huh", he then stated, hoping that he wasn't asking anything too personal, but reassured that it was alright when Willow just smiled and nodded, then gave the taller woman such a loving glance that it warmed the young man's heart, despite the serious situation.

"Several years", the redhead then told him, taking a bite of her chicken afterwards; smiling as well, David did the same, then looked towards the glass front again, frowning when he saw that the world outside had darkened considerably.

"It'll get dark soon", he then stated what was quite obvious, "we should try to figure out how to light up the store…"

"I'll go get Ollie!" Billy cried out in response, jumping up and rushing off before anyone could say anything to stop him; a bit stunned, David watched him go, asking himself where this enthusiasm had come from, then shrugged it off as his son came back with the bald man not even a minute later.

"Ollie", David greeted him, the bald man smiling at him while he carefully sat down, balancing several pieces of chicken and beef on a cardboard plate, managing to make himself comfortable without dropping anything to the ground; he gave the young man a questioning look once he had settled on the floor, David keeping his voice low as he told him about the upcoming night and the fact that, thanks to the lack of electricity, they'd have no light.

"We can use the lamps we just got in last week, they're kinda like spotlights for the garden", Ollie suggested after thinking about the problem for a moment, "there's a generator in the storeroom, if that works, it should at least produce enough electricity to make them work. You know, there's something else I'm worried about though…"

"What?" Willow wanted to know, making the bald man look at her, the fear she suddenly saw in his eyes prompting her heart to perform a daring jump in her chest.

"Well", he slowly started, the sound of his voice making David tell Billy that he should go and find his babysitter, suddenly sure that his son shouldn't hear what Ollie had to say; to his relief, the kid obeyed him without question and hurried off, Ollie making sure that he was out of earshot before he finally continued.

"We don't know what exactly is out there, right?" he muttered, casting nervous glances towards the glass front, "except for that one big thing with all those tentacles. So far, we've been kinda lucky, but… what if they're nocturnal…?"

"Might be that they are", Pat admitted, "at least some of them, who knows? But as long as we're inside, we should be safe, right?"

"That's what I thought", Ollie glumly replied, "but then I realized something all of you are probably missing right now."

"What?" the demon demanded to know, growing a bit impatient; that was forgotten moments later though when the bald man replied, since she was too busy being shocked that she hadn't noticed this herself earlier. "Well… If all those things out there are all as strong as the one in the storeroom … The whole front of the store is made of glass."

* * *

"Okay people, now listen up!" Ollie called out fifteen minutes later, minutes which had been spent with hectically coming up for a way to barricade that glass front, "as you all noticed, we're stuck here, and there are some things which need to get done. For starters, we'll have to make sure that nothing comes through the glass over there. We'll need as many strong volunteers as possible to get all the bags of dog food from the storage so we can put up a barricade up against the glass!"

At once, almost twenty men stepped forward, two of them standing out thanks to the military uniforms they were wearing; David took charge of them, leading them into the storeroom while Ollie spoke on to those who remained. "The rest of you, we know as well as you do that bags of dog food might not be enough, so we need ways to defend ourselves. We have no experience with those creatures yet, but after some discussion, we came to the conclusion that fire might be useful against them, so we'll get buckets and the barbecue spirit, pour it into the buckets and soak mops in the stuff – in case anything gets in here, we light them up and presto! Perfect flaming torch."

"You can plan and scheme all you want", Mrs Carmody called out over the general murmur of agreement, giving them all the chance to notice that her little group had increased to five people, "there is no escape from the wrath of God! All that can save us now is prayer, not your little home-made weapons!"

"Prayer", Pat sarcastically gave back, before she could stop herself, "the perfect way to convince yourself you're helping without actually doing anything. Sorry, Lady, but you'll understand we prefer a more pro-active take on things."

"Easy for you to badmouth prayer, seeing that you live in sin", Mrs Carmody gave back, her voice so full of contempt that it made the black haired woman's blood boil; noticing her anger, Willow placed a comforting hand on her arm, the touch alone being enough to calm her down, Ollie doing the rest by sharply speaking up as well. "You can sit over there and preach if you like, Mrs Carmody, but please don't try to hinder us when we start working."

"Of course I can spread the word of God", Carmody gave back arrogantly, "and if you want to make fools of yourselves, go ahead. If you really think that bags of dog food will be enough to stop the Lord's wrath…"

"Yeah, whatever", Pat muttered, then went to get as many mops and buckets as she could carry; she had been planning to help with the dog food, but then had realized that it probably wasn't a good idea – Willow had taken her aside to let her know that David had noticed her strength and speed, and hauling around fifty pound bags of dog food surely wouldn't help with taking any suspicions he might have away.

"This woman is going to be trouble", the demon told her girlfriend as she joined her in getting the mops and buckets, "her audience grew, and if she keeps going like that, who knows where it will lead."

"Nowhere, hopefully", Willow gave back, taking the buckets Pat was handing to her, then raised an eyebrow when she saw the doubtful expression on the taller woman's face. "Wait", she added after a moment, "you're really worried about this, aren't you?"

"Yes", Pat admitted with a sigh, looking around to make sure no one was in earshot before she spoke on, still keeping her voice low. "Look, I've seen what those religious types can do to people. If the situation gets bad enough… They get a lot of pull. And you'll surely agree that so far, Mrs Carmody didn't appear to be a picture of perfect sanity."

"As long as she's only preaching, she's not doing any harm", Willow tried to calm her down, even though she had to admit that the demon did have a good point, "I don't like the thought that we have someone worshipping that kind of bloodthirsty God she seems to believe in here either, but right now, there's not much we can do. We surely can't just shut her up."

"Unfortunately", Pat sighed, nodding when Myron joined them and asked if they were talking about Mrs Carmody, both of them frowning at his reply.

"Well, maybe she has a point", he stated thoughtfully, looking at her as she kept reading to her small group of followers about the end of the world and God's wrath pouring down on Earth, "I mean, this isn't something which just happens, right? There must be some reason for it?"

"Most likely", the witch gave back, choosing her words carefully once more, knowing that if she said the wrong thing now, she'd send him into a panic – and maybe right into the arms of the preaching lady, and the last thing they needed was that the group over there grew even bigger.

"But we can't know where it came from", she went on after a moment, "and I have a hard time to believe that a loving God would send such creatures to eat his believers, right?"

"Mrs Carmody says God isn't loving, God is cruel", Myron muttered then wandered off again; Willow looked after him for a second before she glanced up at her girlfriend, the worry she could see on the taller woman's face now mirrored on her own.

"You're right", she mumbled, taking several more buckets, "this woman and her preaching might cause trouble after all."

* * *

An hour later, the preparations were mostly done; the bags of dog food had been put up to form a wall almost half as high as the glass front itself, with slits left in regular distances so the people who'd volunteered to sit guard could look out for anything nasty approaching. One of those people was, not really surprising Willow or David, Pat; just like the other guards, she was sitting on one of the folding chairs the store had provided, eating yet another piece of chicken while she looked outside, Willow sitting on the ground not far from her, keeping Billy busy by playing Rock, Paper, Scissors and other, similar games with him.

"Are you sure that letting her watch is a good idea?" one of the other customers whispered to David, who had made himself as comfortable as possible close to the redhead and his son; frowning, he looked at the man who had spoken, an elder citizen with greying hair and a monstrous moustache, the questioning look of the younger man making him shrug before he went on. "Well, not to be nasty or anything, but she's got just one eye."

"She sees well enough", Willow threw in, giving the man a strict look and hoping that Pat hadn't heard him – even though it had been years now that she'd lost that eye, she still reacted rather sensitive to people making comments about it or about how it might affect her. "Don't worry."

"And I didn't hear you volunteer, Harold!" a scratchy voice called out from behind him, making him flinch visibly before he turned to face the old lady, the owner of said voice, nearly shrinking under the steely gaze that met his from behind her thick glasses.

"Now get off that lady's back and make yourself useful", she told him, Willow watching with amusement how he hurried away at once in reply; as soon as his back was turned, the elder lady smiled as well, holding her hand out to her, her smile widening when the witch grasped and shook it. "Irene Reppler. I'm teaching the third grade elementary school in this wonderful little town."

"Willow Rosenberg", the witch introduced herself in reply, smiling again at the curious look the old lady gave her in reply, briefly wondering how old exactly she was – she surely couldn't imagine this frail, white-haired lady standing in front of a class of noisy children.

"Rosenberg, that's a pretty name", Irene stated, eying the redhead curiously, "do you have German descendants?"

"Well, if I do, I don't know", Willow smiled, "but I guess not… I'm from a Jewish family though, so…"

"Oh that explains it!" Irene almost cried, loud enough to make Pat look over with a curiously raised eyebrow; noticing the black haired woman's glance, the elder teacher cleared her throat before she leaned closer to Willow, keeping her voice low as she spoke on. "I know it's not nice to be nosy, but I'm old so, I can. That nice lady over there, she's not your sister, is she?"

"No", Willow replied, a bit surprised by this, asking herself where this was leading, "just guess why Mrs Carmody told her she's living in sin during that little spat they had."

"Oh please, never mind what that one says", Irene gave back with contempt, making the redhead smile again she wondered what the teacher would have used instead of the word "one", had she been a few decades younger – and "blessed" with a mouth as dirty as Pat's.

"Just let her talk, and don't let her get to you", Irene went on, smiling cheerfully at the witch, "no one takes her seriously in our town, she's too fundamental for her own good."

"At least under normal circumstances", Willow gave back, gesturing at the group of people sitting on the ground in front of Mrs Carmody; by now, they had grown to nine, and to the redhead's dismay, Myron the mechanic was one of them, his eyes full of admiration as he looked up at the preaching woman.

"I never would have thought Myron to be the believing type", she added, Irene shaking her head as well at the sight, sighing before she replied. "He isn't, usually, trust me, I used to teach him when he was little. Snotty little brat he was."

"I can imagine that much easier than him in a church", Willow giggled; letting out a hoarse, throaty laugh, Irene nodded, then the two just grinned at each other – only to jump as a startled cry came from one of the people on guard at the glass front, prompting them both to come to their feet as fast as they could, exchanging a brief, worried look before they hurried to the one who had called out, despite how afraid they were of what they might find.


	9. Chapter 9

Author's Note: Since I'm leaving for a little four-day-holiday tomorrow and won't have internet access, you're getting a longer than usual update today :) Enjoy!

* * *

The silence which had come over the supermarket as they all stood and stared was almost eerie, considering how many people were in the store; still no one said a word as they all – sans Mrs Carmody and her small band of followers – clustered around the hole during which one of the guards had spotted something, watching the creature outside climb over the glass, the long, bayonet-like mouthpart of the thing moving over the smooth, cool surface.

"What is this?" one of the staring customers finally whispered; around her, people shrugged, unable to take their eyes off the thing.

"Have you ever seen something like that?" Willow whispered to Pat, not surprised when the demon shook her head; her gaze never left the creature either, taking in every gross detail, with a mixture of repulse and fascination. At first glance, the thing looked like a bug, with beady eyes on long stalks and a slim, segmented body, the dusty pink colour absurdly reminding the black haired woman of bubblegum; it was moving over the glass with eight thin legs, the mouthpiece constantly palpating the glass, looking for something edible on the smooth surface.

"I don't think it's very smart", Pat added after a moment, "it still didn't figure out that it won't find a snack on that glass front. Maybe…"

She had been planning to say that maybe, they'd be lucky and the thing would use the transparent wings on it's back to fly away again; before she could do so though, several more of the giant bugs landed on the glass with low thumps, making her groan in dismay.

"Okay, it won't go away again", she then observed, watching how several more of the bugs joined the ones which already were there, "looks more like they're gonna start a party."

"They can party as much as they want as long as they stay out there", a man next to her commented, making her nod; then, Willow suddenly grasped her hand, sounding alarmed when she spoke up. "Look, they're all moving closer to where we put the oil lanterns! They're attracted to the light!"

"They are", the taller woman realized, "we should put them out then, maybe then they'll just go—" Again she didn't have the chance to finish her sentence, briefly wondering if this was turning into a habit, this time interrupted by several cries when a much larger creature than the bugs came swooping out of the darkness, a long beak with sharp teeth opening and snatching one of the bugs before the creature vanished into the mist again, unimpressed by the cries of the shocked people behind the glass and wall of dog food bags.

"What the Hell was that!" the demon half asked, half snapped; the people around her just kept staring, until finally, the man next to her spoke up again, his voice quivering. "It looked like something out of Jurassic Park… Only much more messed up."

"There's another one!" Irene cried out, gesturing wildly; all heads turned as another one of the creatures flew towards the glass, the wingspan making them all gasp as they realized how big it was. Since it was slower than the first one they had seen, they all managed to get a better look at it and had to admit that the man who had compared it to a Jurassic Park creature at least had been partly right; it looked like a cross-breed of a pterodactyl and a vulture, grabbing one of the bugs with its taloned toes and flying off again.

"Maybe they'll just eat those bugs and won't get in here", a woman close to Willow whispered, sounding much less hopeful than her words were; and as if that had been a cue, one of them suddenly came rushing at the glass and crashed right into it, the sound of glass breaking mixing with the shocked cries the people let out.

"Don't get close to it!" Ollie shouted, ducking his head instinctively when the pteromonster flew over the group close to the window and towards the back of the store; for a moment, there was just panic and uncoordinated running and ducking, then David regained his senses and grabbed one of the mops they had readied, quickly shoving it into one of the spirit-filled buckets they had readied, shouting at the others who stood close to them to do the same.

Letting out an unpleasantly high shriek, the thing turned at the back of the store and flew towards the group of people again; it's small, black eyes focused on a young girl, and before she could even try to get out of the way, it had landed on her, the talons digging in her back and shoulders and making her shriek in pain. Without thinking twice about it, and about how this might look to the townspeople, Pat rushed forward, taking just a moment to judge where to get the best hold before she grabbed the thing, grunting when it responded by flapping its leathery wings at her and let out another shriek, opening a beak full of small, but unpleasantly sharp and pointed teeth, then started snapping at her head, only her fast reaction keeping her from having a chunk of her face ripped out.

The girl screamed in pain again when the talons raked over her back, tearing deep wounds into the skin; snapping at her to hold still, Pat gave her best to wrestle the thing away from her, finally managing to do so, the pteromonster giving her another angry hit with one wing before it took off again.

"Where are those burning mops!" the demon snapped, not caring how idiotic this sounded; in response, two of those who had managed to set their mops on fire rushed forward, trying to beat the thing as it flew above their heads, the fire only serving to attract more of the things though, glass shattering again and again as two more came bursting through.

"Dammit, dammit, dammit!" David shouted as he unsuccessfully tried to get his lighter to work, only producing sparks instead of flames, not managing to set his mop on fire; sensing what her girlfriend was about to do, Willow grabbed her arm and stopped her, her eyes wide as she shook her head.

"Use your own lighter!" she then hissed, "you'll freak him out!"

"Norm still has my lighter", Pat whispered back, glad that no one was paying attention on them, "and David already suspects something's off about me anyway, if I don't get this working, someone else will get hurt!"

"Flick a tiny fireball or something then", the witch demanded, "that way no one will notice!" Nodding, Pat quickly glanced around to make sure no one was staring at her, after how she had managed to get that thing away from the poor girl it had chosen as dinner; they all were staring at the flying monsters though, no one even remotely looking into her direction, the demon deciding to take the chance given by that as fast as possible.

Still trying to be discrete, she let two fingers of one hand flame up, then sent a tiny ball of fire flying, smirking when it hit the spirit-soaked mop David was holding and set it aflame; for a moment, he looked stunned, then regained his focus and started attacking the creatures as well, swinging his mop bravely and hitting one of then straight in the face, the painful shrieks of the thing showing that it was working. Before she could get too happy about this though, Pat got distracted by movement right above her girlfriend's head; automatically, she looked over, her good eye going wide when she saw one of the bugs lowering itself over the redhead, and once more, her instincts took over as she reached out and grabbed the thing, a startled cry escaping Willow when she realized what had been about to land on her.

Disgusted by the way the bug was writhing in her grasp, Pat threw it down to the ground with all force she could bring up, then stomped on it a few times for good measure; grimacing again, she had a moment to contemplate that now, she had black bug blood and various innards stuck to her shoe, then the shocked screams of the people behind her distracted her, along with the sight of Willow gasping and covering her mouth with one hand.

Upon turning around, she saw that one of the men who had armed himself with one of the mops had managed to kick the bucket filled with spirit over right after soaking his mop and lighting it up; and as if that hadn't been enough, he then had slipped in the spreading liquid and had set himself on fire, rolling on the ground and screaming in tremendous pain. To her relief, this time the people reacted after just a few moments of stunned staring; one of them nearly tore his jacket as he hurried to take it off and started beating out the flames with it, others quickly following his example.

"This is God's wrath!" Mrs Carmody decided to add her voice to the general commotion, to the annoyance of several people in the store, "no matter how much you fight and battle His creatures, this will not save you!"

"Shut the fuck up!" the man who had been first to start helping the burning guy on the ground snapped, glaring at the smaller woman; to the surprise of everyone, she did just that, smiling to herself as she watched how one of the flying beasts attacked another man, the sight of her watching this with a smile on her face making Pat's fists itch. Telling herself that no matter how much she wanted to rearrange that woman's face, there was no time for this – not now – she started to look around for a weapon she could use against the monster biting and clawing at the screeching man; moments later, Irene suddenly grabbed her shoulder and, the moment she was looking at her, pushed a large steak knife into her hand, nodding her encouragement with a strangely knowing glint in her eyes.

Tightening her grip on the knife, the demon started forward after a moment of hesitation, asking herself if she was reading too much into the look Irene had given her; then, she shrugged it off and rammed the knife into the pteromonster's body, a satisfied smirk forming on her face when it howled in pain, then let go of its victim, the man crawling away on all fours, sobbing in pain, leaving a trail of blood on the tiled ground. Shrieking again, the monster tried to hook its talons into the demon's arm, something she avoided the last moment though and responded to by ramming the knife into the beast's throat, the shriek it tried to let out reduced to a wet sounding gurgle.

Snarling, Pat pulled the knife back and rammed it in again and again; finally, the thing's body grew limp and it slumped to the ground, the demon grimacing as she noticed that its black blood had spread all over her hands and forearms, momentarily making her glad that she had been wearing a black shirt when they had left for the supermarket. Panting slightly, she lowered the knife and looked around; by now, the other two monsters had been finished off with the help of more steak knives and flaming mops, and the few bugs which had managed to get inside were being taken care of by men and women stomping on them, following the example Pat had set up minutes ago.

"They're all dead", Willow sighed out a she realized the same, cursing the fact that no one here could know about her powers and that thus, she had been pretty much useless during that fight, "thank goodness…"

"Yes, don't thank God!" Mrs Carmody raised her voice again, the redhead looking at her girlfriend in worry when a low growl came from her throat in reply, "because we all know He had nothing to do with it, saving you godless heathens! But don't bask in the so-called glory of this small victory for too long, for He will send more of His allies to wipe out scum like you!"

"If you don't shut the fuck up right now", Pat pressed out between grit teeth in reply, taking a step forward and towards the woman, "I swear I'll knock your teeth down your throat!"

"Your threats don't scare me, sinner", Mrs Carmody replied, making herself comfortable on her folding chair again and opening her bible, "they are but empty words, compared to the glory our Lord reveals to me…"

"You, lady, are a basket case", Pat told her, shaking her head; then, she turned away from the still smiling woman and went to look after the injured ones, feeling Mrs Carmody's eyes on her back the whole time, asking herself where all of this would lead in the end – and how much worse things would become before it would be over.

* * *

Due to his bad burns and the horrid sight he thus was, the man who had slipped in the lighter fluid had been taken to the storeroom; there, he laid on the cool cement floor now, moaning and groaning in pain, every now and then begging that someone would kill him, pleading the few people who were with him to take him out of his misery.

"We have to do it and you know that", Pat whispered to her girlfriend, her gaze never leaving the badly burnt man on the ground, David kneeling next to him and trying to soothe him, even though he knew that no matter he would say, it couldn't take the man's pain away.

"We can't just leave him like this", the demon went on, "and it's just David and Ollie here, they won't freak out…"

"But what if they do?" Willow demanded to know, well aware of the fact that her girlfriend was right and of how much pain this man was in, "what if they do and attack you?"

"Then I'll knock 'em both out", Pat shrugged, the redhead nodding after a moment, realizing that she was right; taking in a deep breath, she walked over to where the moaning man laid and knelt down next to David, not looking at him as she spoke up. "David, Ollie, I want you to listen to me now, and just listen, don't interrupt me and don't ask questions or I'll lose my nerve and it won't work. Okay?"

"Okay", they both agreed in unison, looking at her curiously; eager to give her support, Pat moved over to her as well and placed a calming hand on her shoulder, the witch briefly looking up at her for a moment before she took in another deep breath and spoke on, her gaze focusing on the burned man again. "You know as well as I do that he'll die if we don't help him and, well… Pat and I can help him. You have to promise though that what we will do won't freak you out and that you will keep this to yourselves."

"Kill me", the man on the ground moaned before anyone could reply, "just kill me, please!"

"Hush", David gave back, then looked at the witch again, to her relief just sounding calm when he answered her. "Do whatever you can do for him, as long as it helps him…"

"Alright", Willow breathed, finally looking up and at the two men, "step away then please, and remember – not a word of this to anyone."

"Okay", they agreed again in perfect unison, making the witch smile slightly; they smiled back at her, then got up and moved away from the hurt man, Willow taking in another deep breath before she nodded at her girlfriend, prompting her to kneel down as well and taking the burned man's hand, mumbling soothing words when he groaned in pain at her touch. By now, Willow luckily was good enough with the spell so that it could be done without any ingredients; still she took a few moments to focus, then finally started mumbling the words of the spell, well aware of the fact that both David and Ollie were watching her curiously.

As always when the wounds which had to be healed were bad, it took a while for the spell to kick in; half a minute after she had said the last word though, it finally took effect, David and Ollie gasping when the demon's free hand flamed up.

"What the…" she heard Ollie whisper, only to end in another gasp when slowly, the burns started to heal; next to him, David just stared, clearly not sure if he should believe his eyes, his mouth hanging open in astonishment.

"The pain", the man on the ground muttered, sounding as astonished as David was looking, "it's getting less… am I dying?"

"No", Willow smiled, "you'll be fine again soon, just wait…" He let out a small moan in reply as the burns kept shrinking, his free hand curling into a fist; then, the last one of the burns was gone, and he sat up after a moment, his eyes full of disbelief while Pat let go of him, letting out a heavy breath.

"Jesus Christ", David whispered, astonished; slowly, as if he was afraid of her now, he stepped closer to the demon and looked at her, his voice trembling as he spoke on. "What are you…?"

"That is so rude", Pat gave back, smirking slightly while she came to her feet again, "you don't ask a lady that, you know."

"But I wanna know, too", Ollie threw in, stepping closer to her as well and touching her sleeve, as if to make sure that she was real, only to make a disgusted face when he felt the cold wetness of the pteromonster's blood there.

"I knew something was a bit off about you!" David triumphantly let her know before she could reply anything, "martial arts, yeah right!"

"You have a good radar then", Pat muttered, not liking the way they both were looking at her – they were as far from freaking out as one could be, but she didn't like it to be stared at as if she was some kind of messiah.

"Look", she thus sighed, "don't think now I'm one of the characters from Mrs Carmody's beloved bible or something. I guess you could say I'm the complete opposite."

"She's a demon", Willow finally spilled the beans, glad about the reaction of the two men, "and I'm a witch. Not of the Hansel-and-Gretel, eating-little-kids kind though. None of us. I mean, we don't eat kids, we eat normal food. We're not evil or anything."

"Billy likes you, so I know you're not evil", David gave back, still looking at the demon, now astonished again. "And you're serious? You're a _demon_?"

"Yeah", Pat confirmed, finding her cigarettes and automatically looking for her lighter, then remembering that Norm still had it; she took the time to warn David and Ollie once more that they shouldn't freak out, then let a little flame appear on her index finger and lit the cigarette up on it, raising an eyebrow when David cried out "I knew it!" and pumped his fist in the air.

"I knew the lighter didn't work!" he explained when the black haired woman gave him a stunned look, "so you did that when the mop flamed up anyway! Oh boy, you saved my ass!"

"And Susie's ass, and Marcus'", Ollie added, telling her that those were the two she had helped when they had been attacked by the pteromonsters.

"What else can you do?" he then wanted to know, sounding so much like a kid meeting a superhero that the demon couldn't help herself, but just had to chuckle, shaking her head at his enthusiasm.

"Not much more than that", she then let him know, deciding that they didn't need to know about her more furry form of appearance, "I can let that fire spread all over me if I wanna, and, well, as you probably noticed, I'm stronger than normal people… Faster, too."

In response, David just kept looking at her – before he suddenly swung his fist at her, a triumphant grin appearing on his face when, despite her obvious shock, she caught it, then glared at him, not sounding amused at all when she bellowed "What the Hell are you doing?", Willow just staring in shock.

"Martial arts, yeah right", David repeated his earlier words in reply, "I just wanted to see if you'd catch it even if it wasn't as clumsy as Myron's punch. You know, if someone had told me two days ago that I'd stand in a storeroom, captive in the supermarket, with a witch and a demon, I would have called them insane."

"Well, you are believing this surprisingly quick", Willow gave back, smiling while Pat let go of his fist again, shaking her head at his silliness; he shrugged, then gestured at the tentacle piece that still laid on the ground, his voice having a matter-of-fact tone when he replied. "After seeing that thing and what else came out of that mist, believing you two doesn't seem hard at all. Plus, I just saw what you can do."

"You'd be surprised at how good people are at ignoring such things", Willow mumbled, only to nearly shriek when all at once, the man Pat and she had healed grabbed her arm, his eyes wide and filled with disbelief.

"You made me healthy!" he cried out, as if he only had realized that now, "you took my pain away! Thank you so much!" Before she could say anything, he had pulled her into a bear hug and started sobbing into her shoulder; a bit taken aback by this reaction, the redhead finally returned his embrace, patting his back soothingly, her gaze meeting Pat's when she looked up, the small smile on the demon's face making it clear that, despite the risk they had taken, this had been the right thing to do.


	10. Chapter 10

Author's Note: I made it back from the holiday in one piece, yay! And so, here we go with another update ;)

* * *

"Okay, we know that this sucks, but you can't go out there again", Willow told the man as soon as he had calmed down enough to listen to her – and had managed to introduce himself as Jamie, "no one but us in here is supposed to know what Pat and I can do, but if you walk out there again all fine and dandy…"

"That's my phrase", Pat reminded her, smirking, while Jamie nodded, to the witch's relief not starting a discussion about this.

"I totally understand", he reassured her, "we'd have a hard time explaining that, right? Hey Ollie, can I read some of the magazines over there so I won't be bored?"

"Sure", Ollie shrugged, "read as much as you want. We'll bring you something to drink and some food, too… And then, my friends, we should raid the store for stuff we can use to sleep on, it's getting late."

"Yup", Pat agreed, yawning, "but first, we have to take care of the holes that flying things made, we don't want anything to crawl in while we sleep."

"We'll put up guards again", David gave back, "but yeah, we should fix the window first. Cardboard should do for now…"

Nodding, Pat went with him to find cardboard pieces big enough to cover the holes; while they did that, Ollie approached Willow again, sounding curious when he spoke up. "Is this what you do? Travelling and helping people like us, like superheroes in a TV show? You're not from here, so…"

"Actually, no", Willow gave back, smiling slightly, glad that both men were taking this so easy, "we really did just come here for holidays… We are quite busy with such supernatural stuff in our hometown, in California, but we've never seen such a mist before either."

"Ok, we got enough cardboard", David announced, distracting them from their talk, "let's go back and see how the rest is doing."

They both nodded their agreement, then reminded Jamie once more that he had to stay in the storeroom before they returned to the supermarket's main area, where by now, people had raided the store for things to sleep on, slumbering on inflatable mattresses and the long seat cushions that were meant to use on lounging chairs.

"Let's hope they left some of those for us", Pat mumbled while she went to fix the holes with David; it didn't take long until they were done, and afterwards, they managed to find enough seat cushions to make themselves comfortable, with the couple choosing an aisle where so far, no one else was sleeping – this wasn't much privacy, but it was better than sleeping right next to a bunch of total strangers. Even though she found it highly uncomfortable to sleep with the eyepatch on, Pat didn't take it off, not wanting anyone to see what was beneath it and freak them out; while she put up the seat cushions and tried to figure out if they really were soft enough, Willow asked Irene where she had found her blanket and went to get two from the stack the elder lady pointed her to, then joined her girlfriend, sighing to herself while she handed her one of the blankets.

"First night of our holiday, storm breaks our window and we have to sleep in the cellar", she then recollected, "second night, we are stuck in the supermarket. I wonder what will happen in the third night?"

"I never should have brought you here", Pat gave back, suddenly sounding so upset that it startled the witch, "if I had known this would happen…"

"Oh no, don't do that", Willow tried to calm her down, not sure how to handle this sudden outburst of emotion, "come on, there was no chance you could have known something like that would happen! Of course I know you wouldn't have suggested going here if you'd known that, but at least we can help now…"

"This is just so typical", Pat sighed out after a moment, shaking her head while she made herself as comfortable as it was possible on the seat cushion, "we leave Sunnydale for a while to get away from all the stuff there, and what happens? Monsters in the mist."

"Talk about bad luck", Willow gave back, lying down next to her and snuggling up to her, smiling when the taller woman pulled her even closer and into a tender embrace.

"Well", the demon mumbled as soon as the witch had found a comfortable position and laid still, "at least we're in this together. Just imagine one of us staying at the house or something…"

"Bad thought", Willow immediately gave back, shuddering at the mental image, "I don't even want to think about it longer than a second. As screwed up as this whole situation is, it's good that we're together…"

"Yup", the demon agreed, then let out a hearty yawn, the day's excitement finally taking its toll on her; smiling, Willow suggested that they should get some sleep at last, making the taller woman nod her agreement before they shared an innocent, but tender good night kiss, then both quickly drifted off, sleeping as deep as they could in a situation as bad as the one they were caught in.

* * *

In the next morning, the first thing Willow noticed when she woke up was that her back hurt, payment for sleeping on a rather thin seat cushion the whole night; the second thing that registered within her mind was that Pat was gone, and for a moment, she was worried, then told herself not to be silly – after all, the demon couldn't have left the supermarket and thus had to be around somewhere.

Groaning at the dull ache in her back, she sat up and rubbed her eyes tiredly; a quick look on her watch showed her that it was just a few minutes past seven, but sleeping any longer wasn't an option, the atmosphere too tense to allow her longer slumber. With another groan, she came to her feet, grimacing at the feeling of wearing the same clothes she had worn the day before and during the night; without much success, she tried to straighten them out a bit while she started looking for her girlfriend and found David instead, the young man sitting on the ground in the next aisle and eating breakfast with his son, to her relief giving her a nod when she asked him if he had seen Pat.

"She grabbed one of those awful iced coffees from the dairy section and vanished into the storeroom", he then told her after swallowing down his mouthful of cereal, "oh, and she grunted at me when I said Hello."

"She does that in the morning, don't take it personal", Willow smirked, then thanked him for his help before she went to join her partner; she wasn't surprised to find the demon sitting on a bag of dog food, the "awful iced coffee" in one hand and a cigarette in the other, but what did surprise her was the fact that Norm was sitting next to her, in almost exactly the same position and with the same items in his hands.

"Good morning", she greeted, a snort escaping her when, in perfect unison, the demon and the teenager let out almost identical sounding grunts; shaking her head, she stepped closer to her girlfriend, took the coffee from her and took a sip of it before giving it back, a hint of mischief in her voice when she spoke on. "My, my, you two could almost be siblings or something right now. Are you sure you're not related?"

In response, Pat just raised an eyebrow, then downed the rest of her coffee with one big gulp, grimacing at the taste afterwards – she wasn't all too fond of that kind of coffee either, but to her endless chagrin, it had been the only one available without bothering with instant coffee, which wasn't much better, and finding a way to heat up water without electricity and without using her fire in front of everybody.

"How's it out there?" she then half asked, half grunted; shrugging, Willow sat down next to her, ignoring the way Norm's eyes went wide when the demon's free hand grasped hers and showing that obviously, he hadn't caught up about their relationship as fast as David and Irene had.

"As normal as it can be, I guess", she then gave back, "several people are still asleep, Mrs Carmody is preaching to her flock of followers – which has grown again, by the way -, and those who aren't sleeping or listening to her are having more or less balanced breakfasts."

"I don't like that bit about Mrs Carmody and her flock", Norm muttered, apparently capable of coherent speech by now as well, "how many are there now?"

"I didn't stop to count", the redhead shrugged, "fourteen or fifteen. I wonder if she's been talking all night, doesn't she get tired?"

"Apparently not", Pat sighed, then smirked when a snoring sound came from behind the stack of dog food she was sitting on and startled the witch, making her jump slightly – before she remembered that Jamie had spent the night in the storeroom as well and obviously still was fast asleep, not disturbed the slightest by their talking.

"She doesn't", Norm now confirmed, rolling his eyes, "I had to get up once during the night because I had to piss like a racehorse and… Oh, jeez, I'm sorry…"

"Never mind", Willow shrugged it off while the demon just smirked, "after living a few years with that dirty-mouthed woman next to me here, something like that can't shock me anymore. You wanted to say?"

"Well", the teenager regained his composure and continued, "I got up at night because you-know-what and there she sat, only with a candle which made her look very creepy, and talked about all that Armageddon and wrath of God stuff. Most of her listeners were asleep but I think Myron was awake and listening to her."

"Poor guy", Pat muttered, lighting up another cigarette and, with a sigh, offering the pack to Norm at his longing look, earning a bright smile from him, "that whole scene in here really unhinged him, if he sits and listens to that batshit crazy lady."

"Now I know what you meant about dirty-mouthed", Norm told Willow in response to that, smirking when the witch giggled, then reassured him that this was just the tip of the iceberg, only to let out a cooing "Awww" when Pat gave her a sour look.

"Well, you sometimes do sound like a sailor, or worse", she then defended herself, "but you know I don't mind, I love you anyway."

"Aw, so you two really are together", Norm finally caught up, sounding so dejected that they both had to hold back an urge to laugh, knowing it would have been cruel to react like that, "bummer…"

"Sorry, pal", Pat smirked, patting his shoulder; he gave her a half-hearted smile, then finished his cigarette and let them know that he'd go and find Ollie, the couple nodding in reply before they watched him go, Willow bursting into giggles the moment the door fell close behind him.

"Poor him", she stated as soon as she had calmed down enough again to talk, "did you see the look on his face? Aww…"

"He'll get over it", Pat shrugged, her next words making the witch giggle again. "Plus, I'm too old for him anyway."

"Technically, you're also too old for me", the redhead pointed out to her, "but lucky for you, I don't mind…"

"Yup, lucky for me", Pat gave back, throwing her cigarette to the ground and stepping on it to put it out before she leaned in for a kiss, both of them briefly forgetting the mist and the creatures hiding in it when it deepened, able to forget their worries and troubles at least for a few wonderful seconds.


	11. Chapter 11

That pleasant feeling was forgotten the moment they stepped out of the storeroom and saw that trouble was about to start; for once, it wasn't the fault of anything coming out of the mist, but of Mrs Carmody and a burly, short guy standing in front of her, the two standing face to face in front of the store's door and discussing something with great fervour.

"Ding ding ding, round one", Pat whispered to Willow while they as unobtrusively as possible moved closer so they could hear what it was about, "religious zealot vs. normal person. Wonder who will win."

"I don't care what your book says", the burly man now snapped, crossing his massive arms over his chest and making the muscles bulge, a sight which would have impressed anyone else who had enough sense, but clearly didn't have that effect on Mrs Carmody, "he is my friend, and she's just a young girl, they need that stuff, you will shut up about it!"

"They were the first ones to feel God's wrath", Mrs Carmody replied, clearly forgetting the poor old guy with the bloody nose and the even poorer man who had lost his head to a monster out there, "their blood was a sacrifice! There were no more attacks afterwards, were there? If you anger God again now, we all will suffer!"

"What's going on?" Willow whispered to David when he stepped over to her, looking worried; keeping his voice down as well, and without taking his gaze off the lady, he replied, the concern in his voice making the redhead's worry go up, as well. "Some of us are planning to go to the pharmacy next door and get some stuff to help poor Susie and Marcus, and apparently, Mrs Carmody and her followers think that going out there means certain death for those who go _and_ for them in here, so they don't want to let us leave."

"Bet she wouldn't care if it just meant certain death for us", Pat commented, prompting Willow to give her a startled look, her voice filled with the same emotion when she replied. "For us? You want to go with them?!"

"Actually, I wanted to ask her if she'll come along", David admitted before the demon could answer, "we might need someone with her strength and her… special abilities."

"I'm not doing any fireshows if people who don't know about it come along", Pat told him, her voice down to a whisper, "do you want to freak them out even more than they already are?"

"Actually I was thinking about the healing thing", David clarified, only to make a face when the black haired woman told him that the "healing thing" was more Willow's doing than hers.

"I'll come though", she then added, "at least I can help you with my strength and speed. This is okay with you, right, Sweetie?"

"Well, to be honest, no", the redhead sighed, "but those two poor people need help, so go for it… Who else is coming? Maybe I should go, too."

"The guy over there who's still arguing with Mrs Carmody", David informed her in reply, "his name's Sam, he works at the hardware store. Ollie's coming along, me of course, and Irene insists on coming as well…"

"_Irene_?!" Willow and Pat cried out in perfect unison, making the young man sigh before he nodded, then raised both hands, to stop any statements which might question his sanity before they could even come up. "Believe me, I tried to talk her out of it, but she insisted. Said it made her feel useless to just sit around here and that we can't stop her from coming anyway."

"But… She's old", Pat pointed out, only to let out a low "Ooff!" when someone elbowed her in the back from behind, finding herself face to face with Irene upon turning around.

"That was a nasty thing to say, young lady", Irene scolded her, sounding so much like a teacher that Willow nearly giggled, "you should be ashamed! If you were one of my students, I'd make you stand in the corner now."

"Lucky I'm not, then", Pat gave back, raising an eyebrow, "and I admire your elbow technique, seriously, but… That won't help against the monsters, you know."

"No it won't", Irene confirmed, "but, and this is something David clearly forgot to mention, I have a vast knowledge of the pharmacy, I know what we need and where to find it, so it'll be done quicker if you take me along. You strong ones will just have to look out for me."

"She won't stay here no matter what we say, right?" Pat asked, turning to look at David; with a sigh, the young man nodded, then threw Irene a strict look, sounding quite commanding when he told that she could come along, but that she should stay out of any fighting that might happen and that she'd not get in the way of people who might have to fight something.

"Of course", Irene gave back, "what do you think I am, David, dull? Just let me get my handbag and then we'll go."

"If Mrs Carmody and her followers let us", Ollie commented as he joined the group; next to him, Willow held back a sigh when a malicious smirk formed on Pat's face, the demon then telling the others to leave that to her before she started moving, making her way to where Mrs Carmody and Sam still were arguing, the burly man's voice quite loud by now.

"Excuse me, Mrs Carmody", Pat interrupted the moment she was close enough, "sinner wants to pass. If you just could get out of the way?"

Raising an eyebrow at her, Sam clearly asked himself why she thought that this should work; snarling at her, Mrs Carmody shook her head, her voice rising as well at last when she replied. "The Lord has told me that this is His wrath and that we must take it if we want it to end! Helping those He chose as His victims will only increase His anger at us!"

"Yeah, I knew you'd say something like that", the demon said amiably – then stepped even closer to the other woman and, to the surprise and shock of everyone, grabbed her around the waist, threw her over her shoulder as if she was a sack of flour and carried her away from the door, ignoring the feeble struggles Mrs Carmody put up once she had gotten over her shock at being treated like this.

Unceremoniously, Pat put her back down near one of the cash registers, giving her another remarkably friendly smile before she turned to look at the small group of people who'd volunteered for the trip to the pharmacy, gesturing at the door with one hand, ignoring the shocked look on their faces. "So… Shall we go then?"

* * *

"I can't believe you did that", David mumbled as soon as they had stepped outside, holding on to each other's sleeves so no one would get separated from the group, "that was quite the display."

"I know, but now be quiet", Pat mumbled back, looking left and right while they slowly moved along the supermarket building and approached the pharmacy, "or maybe we'll attract something with our talking."

Nodding, David realized that this was a good point and fell silent; in front of him, Sam barely dared to properly lift his feet afterwards, shuffling along for a few steps until he realized that this made his movements even louder and walked properly again, nervously glancing left and right as he waited for the pharmacy entrance to appear, asking himself how much farther he'd have to go.

Finally, the supermarket building ended and was replaced by the much smaller one of the pharmacy; counting his steps, Sam approached the door, only to step dead in his tracks and make David bump into him, his eyes going wide.

"What?" David hissed, prompting Pat, Irene and Ollie to crane their necks as they tried to see what was the reason for the stop, "what is it…?"

"Mr Wilkerson", Sam pressed out in reply, "at least I think that's him…" Now worried, the young man moved past Sam, even though this meant that he had to leave the safety of the wall at his back to do so and looked what had upset the smaller man so much; moments later, his hand came up to cover his mouth as he felt his breakfast getting eager to make a reappearance in the world, a chocked noise escaping him.

Halfway out on the sidewalk, a man laid, his white coat identifying him as the pharmacy worker; for almost half a minute, David and Sam just stood and stared as their brains processed what was wrong with him, until it both hit them at the same time – the man's head was gone, only a large, by now rusty brown stain where it should have been, his white coat splattered with dried blood as well.

"He tried to get out", Sam whispered, unable to take his eyes away from the horrible sight, "he tried to get out and then something got him…"

"There'll probably be more inside", Pat told them, not letting it show that the sight made her quite nervous as well, "so, if any of you thinks he won't be able to handle it, go back now. We don't need a freakout in there."

"I'll be fine", Sam croaked, then moved on as if to prove this; with a clearly visible shudder, he stepped past the corpse on the ground and inside the pharmacy, the others following him a short moment later.

"Alright", Irene whispered, clutching her handbag to her chest, "the really strong painkillers are behind the counter, and the disinfectants are over there. The bandages should be—" An unsettlingly loud scurrying noise made her fall silent, and she squinted behind her glasses as she looked around trying to figure out where it had come from and what had caused it; moments later, Ollie cried "Look out!" and pushed her harshly, just in time to keep the shockingly large spider which had let itself drop from the ceiling from landing right on her head.

"Oh fuck oh fuck oh fuck", Sam started whimpering when more of the spiders followed the first one, dropping out of the darkness above them, "spiders, I hate spiders, oh fuck!"

"Get a grip", David snarled, even though he had to admit that he could understand the man's behaviour quite well – usually, he wasn't afraid of spiders, but those he had encountered before hadn't ranged between the size of a turtle and a German Shepherd puppy.

"I never thought I'd be able to look a spider in the eyes when I kill it", Pat dryly commented – after years of hunting demons and vampires, megalomaniac spiders couldn't really freak her out anymore, something she made quite clear to the others by stomping on one of them when it came too close for comfort.

With an awfully loud, high shriek, the thing got crunched beneath her foot, shivering on the wooden floor as it died; the noise it had made seemed to serve as some kind of signal, since the other spiders suddenly seemed much more lively, scurrying this way and that, avoiding the feet that came down to kill them with unsettling ease. One of them hurriedly made its way up the shelf next to Sam, the man letting out a squeal at the sight; he grabbed the first object he could get his hand on, a large box of cough drops, of all things, and tried to smack the spider with it, a shriek coming from him when in response, the thing shot a thick, slimy looking string of cobweb at him, his shriek of fear turning into one of pain when it landed on his leg and the fabric of his jeans started to sizzle, then his skin as whatever was on the cobweb started to burn into it.

"Get that off me!" he howled in panic, not even noticing how Ollie finished the spider which had done this to him off by whacking it with the axe he smartly had brought along, "it hurts, oh God it hurts, get it…!"

A sudden, thick gust of blood erupted from his leg, splattering the startled Irene, as the cobweb had sunken into his flesh deep enough to reach the thick artery; gurgling, with his eyes rolling back into his head, Sam went down, prompting David to cry out his name, even though he already knew it was too late for him – no one could bleed like that and survive.

"Stay away from those cobwebs!" Irene shouted, not letting it show if being covered in blood from head to stomach freaked her out, "and grab the stuff we need, _quick_!"

Impressed and even a bit calmed down by how level-headed she was, David and Ollie nodded, then hurried to get everything they needed; when Pat wanted to do the same though, Irene grabbed her arm and stopped her, a twinkle in her eyes as she reached into her handbag and brought out two cans of bug spray, of all things.

"What do you want with that?" Pat demanded to know, then quickly ducked as a spider shot a thick string of cobweb into her direction, moving a few steps forward to keep it from landing anywhere on her body as it slowly sunk down to the ground, the wood starting to smoke a few seconds after it had settled there.

"I want to barbecue some spiders", Irene gave back, stomping on another one as it scurried towards her, rolling her eyes when in response, the demon started looking for her lighter.

"Drop the pretence", she then almost snapped, "I know what you can do. Gimme some proper fire, woman!"

For a few moments, all Pat could do was stare at her, asking herself when exactly _this_ had happened; then, she smirked and nodded, making Irene smile maliciously as well while she held out the bug spray.

"Eat fire, you buggers!" she cried as the demon let both hands flame up, then held them in front of the cans; she pushed down on the buttons on top, and the bug spray shot out, turning into two gusts of fire as it passed the taller woman's hands. Following the direction the elder woman was giving her, Pat went down to one knee, the flames engulfing one of the spiders moments later and making it shriek in pain; it shot out a length of cobweb, earning a pained shout from the demon when it landed on her arm, the fire briefly stopping as she grabbed it and tried to tear it off, only to howl in pain again when it started to eat into her hand, as well.

"Burn it, burn it!" Irene yelled at her, forcing her to hold back the urge to slap herself for not thinking of this before she did just that; ignoring the sizzling gashes in her forearm and hand, she provided fire for the elder woman again afterwards, making sure to avoid any cobwebs the remaining spiders might spit at her.

"We got everything!" David finally called out the words they both had been waiting for; dropping the by now almost empty cans, Irene hurried out of the store, Pat right behind her, followed by Ollie and David, the two of them clutching the items they had collected from the store – and, to the surprise of the two women, a shotgun which they had found behind the counter, along with a box of ammunition.

As they ran back to the doors of the supermarket, most of the people still stuck there watched them through the slits in the bag wall; they all looked equally shocked when they saw the blood-spattered Irene and realized that one of them was missing, tense silence greeting the group as they finally reached the door and hurried back into the supermarket, slamming the door shut before any spiders which might have followed them could get inside.

"Look at them", Mrs Carmody was the one to break the silence, not really surprising anyone of the small group, "two of them hurt, one of them gone. This is the price you pay for disobeying the Lord and His will!"

"Actually I'm not hurt", Irene corrected her, "this is Sam's… blood…" As if she only realized fully now that she was covered in another man's blood, she trailed off, her face paling drastically; and then, her eyes rolled back into her head as her knees gave in beneath her and she let out a strangely chocked sound before the world around her darkened and she fainted.


	12. Chapter 12

When she woke up again, she laid on one of the seat cushions, several worried faces above her; snapping at them to stop staring at her, Irene sat up, then shook her head, scolding herself for fainting like a nervous virgin at her wedding night.

"I'm fine", she then told the concerned group around her, "just blacked out a little there for a moment."

"No more excursions for you", Pat told her in reply, giving her a strict look; in response, Irene held her gaze for a moment – before she reached out and poked the spot where the cobweb had landed, making the demon yelp in pain and prompting Willow to jump in shock, then shoot the elder woman a dirty look.

"What was that for?!" she then demanded to know, crossing her arms over her chest; unimpressed, Irene held her gaze, a twinkle in her eyes as she replied. "Just reminding your girl here that this might have been much worse if I hadn't told her to burn that silly cobweb instead of trying to yank it off."

"Burn…?" the redhead repeated, making the black haired woman sigh before she shrugged, not sounding all too concerned when she answered. "Irene knows. Don't ask me how, I didn't tell her."

"And neither did we", Ollie and David let them know in perfect unison, prompting Irene to roll her eyes.

"I have eyes, you know", she then told the demon, pointing to said peepers for emphasis, "I saw what you did with the mop during the fight against the bugs and the Jurassic Park rejects."

"Oh", Pat smartly replied, scratching the back of her head, "I thought no one saw."

"I think no one else did", Irene calmed her down, then suddenly remembered why they had gone to the pharmacy and looked around in worry, asking if someone was taking care of Marcus and Susie.

"Yes, Amanda is", David reassured her, "she seems to know what she's doing, so no worries."

"You should let her have a look at your arm and hand", Ollie added, giving the demon a worried look; to his surprise, Pat shrugged it off, then told him that it was fine and that she had survived worse, only to yelp again when Willow punched her upper arm, harder than she usually did.

"You'll have that taken care of", she then almost ordered, "the last thing we need now is that you get some kind of infection."

"Yes, Honey", the demon sighed, the others chuckling at her resigned tone; muttering to herself, she got up from her seat and moved to where Amanda was tending to Marcus, Susie already being done with getting treated and now lying on her side, a dopey smile on her face that showed she had made good use of the painkillers the group had brought back.

"You are spitting in God's face!" Mrs Carmody told Amanda as she kept cleaning Marcus' wounds, the brunette ignoring her pointedly, "giving aid to those heathens! They deserve those wounds!"

"Hey, I go to church every Sunday", Marcus protested, making Susie giggle, Mrs Carmody clearly not seeing the humour of it though since she looked daggers at the wounded man.

"Then why did this beast choose you?" she demanded to know, waving her bible in Marcus' face for emphasis, "if you are such a good Christian, huh? You're like all those Christians who just pay lip service to God, but spit on his commands and support this evil evolution thing and stem cell research and homosexual deviants!"

"Hey", Pat now cut in, once more having enough of the woman's attitude, "shut it, lady, no one here wants to hear your sermons!"

"We do", one of her followers replied, "but I'm not surprised you don't, you're one of the deviants she's talking about!"

"Watch your mouth, buddy", the demon snarled, coming to her feet so she could glare down on the smaller man, making him gulp as he realized how tall she was, "I'm not in the best mood right now, and trust me, you don't want to make it any worse."

"We are protected by God", Mrs Carmody told her, sneering, "your threats don't scare us, sinner! Deviant! You will burn in Hell before this is over, and righteously so!"

By now, others had noticed the commotion and were coming over to see what was going on, among them the pharmacy excursion survivors and of course Willow; immediately, concern filled her when she saw that it was her girlfriend arguing with some guy who seemingly couldn't decide if he was angry with her or intimated by her, and Mrs Carmody, the witch well aware that this could only end in catastrophe.

"You call me the sinner?" Pat now snapped, gesturing at the wounded Marcus and Susie, "you want to let them suffer in pain after those monsters _randomly_ attacked them and you have the nerve to call _me_ the sinner here? Really?"

"Their suffering is the Lord's work", Mrs Carmody replied, unimpressed by her anger, "and their pain shall cleanse their souls and allow them to enter Heaven after the Lord decides to end this! This are the end times, and their blood bought them the cleansing of their souls!"

"Oh, did your God tell you that?" the black haired woman snarled, crossing her arms over her chest. "You know", she went on when the woman didn't reply at once, "if someone claims to hear voices under normal circumstances, they are called what they are – batshit crazy. I'm surprised no one else here has called you that."

Clearly insulted now, Mrs Carmody took in a deep breath to answer to this; before she could even say the first word though, the man who had butted in minutes ago suddenly took a swing at the taller woman, the action catching her off-guard so much that she didn't even have the chance to try and block it, taking his fist full in the face and stumbling a few steps back.

"Hey!" Willow snapped, stunned, automatically taking a step forward to stop the guy from attacking again; this resulted in another member of Mrs Carmody's little group stepping up to her and shoving her back, hard enough to make her stumble, Ollie grabbing her in the last second and keeping her from falling.

"Stay out of this, slut!" the woman who had shoved her told her angrily, "so Robert can give this deviant—" Behind her, she heard Robert let out a strange sound, then the noise of a body hitting the ground; upon turning around, she just had a second to realize that clearly, Robert hadn't quite succeeded in giving Pat what she deserved since now, the black haired woman stood in front of her, but before she could say or do anything, Pat had grabbed her collar and picked her up with ease, pressing her words out through grit teeth as she glared at her. "I'll tell you this once, and just once, so you better listen, woman – if you _ever_ touch my girlfriend again, just the tiniest, most harmless touch, I. Will. Kill. You. Do you understand?"

When all the woman could do was splutter and stutter in reply, Pat let out a low growl and shook her a few times, making her shriek in panic, glaring at her as intensely as she could as she repeated her question. "Do you understand me?"

"Y-yes!" the woman finally cried, her trust in God to protect her from harm clearly fading due to the fact that she was held in a death grip by an angry woman, her feet dangling almost twenty centimetres above the floor, "I understand!"

"Good", the demon snarled, then dropped her unceremoniously; looking as if she was close to bursting into the tears, the woman hurriedly got to her feet again and ran to merge with the cluster of the Mrs Carmody followers, all of them staring at the demon hostilely, but none of them daring to say or do anything after this display of strength and anger.

"The same goes for the rest of you", Pat told them, the witch able to tell how close she was to bursting into flames, briefly feeling relief about the fact that so far, she hadn't started to smoke in the literal sense yet, "if anyone touches her ever again…"

She trailed off, not feeling the need to elaborate on what would happen; after giving the group one last angry glare, she turned to march off, Willow following her after a few moments of silence, her mind once more racing as she tried to figure out how Mrs Carmody might use this to her advantage – that she _would_ use it was out of the question, but none of those possible uses seemed pleasant, the redhead suddenly deeply afraid for herself, Pat and the friends they had made here.

* * *

It didn't surprise the redhead that her girlfriend had hurried right into the storeroom and had lit up a cigarette there; apparently, Jamie had tried to make small talk, but only had been given short, monosyllabic answers, since he was reading one of the magazines again by the time Willow joined the demon there, doing the couple the favour to move to the back of the storeroom where he wouldn't hear them talk when he saw the worried expression on the redhead's face.

"Are you okay?" she softly asked the moment Jamie was out of earshot, looking at the taller woman, her concern only growing when she saw that Robert's punch had split her lover's lip; to her relief, Pat nodded after a moment, then even smiled at her, sounding a bit regretful when she replied. "I am, but now that I had time to calm down a bit, I think I only made things worse. Now Mrs Carmody can preach about how they are attacked and threatened by the heathens of the store."

"Oh please", Willow shook her head, "that guy hit you first! You just defended yourself. And me, when you intimidated that woman. That was quite impressive, by the way."

"Glad to hear", Pat gave back, only to grimace a moment later as she remembered how she had intimated said woman. "But maybe I shouldn't have picked her up like that… Now no one will buy the martial arts excuse anymore."

"They wouldn't anymore even if you hadn't done that", Willow shrugged, giggling at the way her girlfriend raised an eyebrow at her and quickly hurried to explain herself. "Well, you didn't exactly use martial arts on that guy Robert, you just socked him one straight in the jaw and knocked him out. Like a boxer."

"Yeah, I'm a regular Mike Tyson", Pat smirked, throwing her cigarette to the ground so she could put both arms around the redhead and pull her close, rolling her good eye when Jamie teasingly called out "Get a room!" to them.

"I just hope this will be over soon", Willow mumbled, ignoring the man in the background and returning the embrace, "I have the feeling that things will really go downhill with that little… cult Mrs Carmody is forming there if this goes on any longer."

"Cult is exactly the right word", Pat muttered, "who knows what other crazy ideas they might get into their heads. And they grew again while we went to the pharmacy, now there's eighteen of them."

"I still can't believe Myron joined them", Jamie called out from his seat, making them both wonder why he had gone to the back if he now listened anyway, "before this shit happened, he'd laugh at people who'd get up early to go to church."

"Such situations can do weird things to people's heads", Willow told him in reply, turning in her girlfriend's embrace to look at him, giggling when he asked her if there was any danger of Pat or her getting caught up with that group, as well.

"Come on", she then told him, shaking her head, "Pat's a demon, and I'm a witch, how do you think this would work out with a ragingly religious group of people?"

Good point", Jamie had to admit, then focused on his magazine again; before he could even finish reading the page he currently was on though, the door to the storeroom suddenly flew open and Norm came storming in, the look of panic on his face alarming both Willow and Pat.

"Quick", he cried, looking back over his shoulder with obvious terror, "you gotta hide or something, Mrs Carmody, she's gone totally off the deep end now and is shouting for a sacrifice and her followers are going along with it!"

"What?" Willow gave back, flabbergasted; before Norm could say more though, Myron suddenly appeared behind him and violently shoved him aside, then strode into the storeroom, the rest of the woman's followers right behind him, all of them with a deeply disturbing, fey expression on their face – and armed with all possible and impossible things, from steak knives and other things found in the kitchen to various garden appliances like shovels and even hedge clippers.

"There they are!" Myron cried out, pointing at the stunned couple, "those sinners! That witch!" For a moment, Willow had the chance to tell herself that he wasn't meaning it in the literal sense – then Myron gestured at Jamie, who just sat there and stared, just as stunned as the couple, his voice rising as he went on. "See? See? Just as I said! She did some black magic and healed him, I heard it all!"

They just had a second to contemplate why he hadn't told anyone earlier and why they hadn't noticed that he had been eavesdropping, then the mob – as this was what the group had turned into, a howling, raging mob of people who'd lost all grip on rationality – rushed at them, the demon just having time to shove Willow behind her before they had reached her and she blocked out all thought as she let her instincts take over.


	13. Chapter 13

Even though she fought as hard as she could without using her fire or even transforming, they overpowered her in the end; at first, she had been doing fine, holding them off the best she could and knocking two of them out, then one of them had snuck in from the left, taking vile advantage of her blind side, and had rammed his pair of hedge clippers into her upper leg, making her stumble, another man taking the chance given by that to hit her over the back of the head with a frying pan, something which might look comical in various cartoons, but threw her down on all fours nonetheless.

Ignoring the shouts to stop Willow let out, they came down on her next, grabbing her and dragging her out of the storeroom, despite her struggling and cries for help; when Norm tried to step in and stop them, one of the men punched him hard and sent him to the ground again, others of the group holding back David and Ollie when they tried to intervene as well.

"You can't do that!" Irene shouted, using decades of experience in noisy classrooms to raise her voice above the racket the cult was making, "have you all lost your minds?! Let that poor girl go!"

"Thou shall not suffer a witch to live!" Mrs Carmody triumphantly yelled in reply, waving her bible around again, "now the sinner will get what she deserves, God will be appeased and we will be delivered!"

"You're insane!" David shouted, struggling in the grip of the two men who were holding him, glad that the babysitter had thought of hurrying to the back of the supermarket with Billy so at least his son didn't have to see anything of what was happening, "she _helped_ Jamie, can't you see that?! She saved him!"

"Nothing good ever comes from this kind of magic! Jamie's soul belongs to the devil now, thanks to _her_!" Mrs Carmody shot back while, to Willow's endless terror, one of her followers was handing her a large kitchen knife, but before she could do anything with that, several of her followers let out surprised cries as they were roughly shoved aside, their yelps interspersed with a shockingly loud, throaty growl.

"There comes the other deviant", Mrs Carmody observed as Pat shoved yet another one of her followers aside, a malicious smirk forming on her face, "what are you waiting for?! Grab her, she's next!"

Two of the men did just that, one of them ramming his knee against her leg injury when she tried to break free, making her howl in pain – before she clenched her teeth and stared at the by now clearly insane woman, her voice down to a low growl when she spoke up. "If you don't stop this right now, you'll pay. You don't know whom you're messing with."

"Pat, no!" Willow cried out as she realized what her lover was about to do, knowing that this would only make things worse, "don't, please! Just try to—"

Mrs Carmody's hand closing around her throat and the other one pressing the knife against her cheek made her fall silent, her eyes widening in terror once more; smiling crazily, the woman slowly ran the cold knife down her cheek to her throat, her breath hot and smelly when she brought her face so close to the redhead that for a moment, it seemed as if she wanted to kiss her, an impression she ruined when she spoke up. "You had the chance to repent, but you didn't take it… Now, you'll get what you deserve, sinner…"

The pressure of the knife increased until Willow was sure it would cut her skin any second; before it did so though, Mrs Carmody's eyes suddenly went wide, and moments later, the men who had grabbed Pat started screaming as the fire that had burst from her fists spread up her arms and burned them, making them let go of her and stumble back, their eyes wide with shock and terror. With another loud growl, ignoring her injured leg, the demon shot forward; and while she did so, her body changed, several people of the crowd screaming when they saw her hair spread and thicken until it became fur and her muscles bulge.

Since she had been sure that she wouldn't need to demon out during what had been supposed to be a harmless trip to the supermarket, she hadn't bothered with putting on clothes that might survive the process; the shirt was loosely fitting enough to not get torn up, but the pants were ripped to shreds, something the demon didn't even notice though as she stopped next to Willow and the for once speechless Mrs Carmody, the growls she was letting out sounding awfully loud in the shocked silence that had fallen over the supermarket while her flames vanished, giving them all the chance to see her in full demonic glory – and reducing the danger that she might accidentally burn her girlfriend.

Gathering all his courage, Myron gripped the hammer he had chosen as a weapon tighter as he slowly approached her; then, her head whipped around and she glared at him from a glowing red eye, growling loudly at him, baring her impressively sharp teeth at him in the process. A second later, the hammer fell to the ground and Myron let out a small, high-pitched whimper, a dark stain slowly beginning to spread in the crotch of his pants while he stumbled back from her, nearly falling as he hurried to put as much distance as possible between her and himself without taking his eyes off her.

Taking the chance given by how stunned everyone was, David and Ollie quickly freed themselves from the grasp they had been held in and hurried to move over to where the witch and the demon were now standing next to each other, both men handling their own shock about this surprisingly well, even when they saw how the wounds the black haired woman had taken so far fully healed within not even two minutes.

"A demon", Mrs Carmody whispered, still clutching the knife, "a demon sent from Hell!"

"Actually, we came from California", Willow mumbled, then nearly started giggling hysterically as she realized what a stupid thing this had been to say, blaming it on the fact that she'd had had a knife to her throat and had been threatened with death until a mere minute ago.

"I should just rip your head off", Pat now growled, the glow in her eye increasing even further, showing her tremendous rage, "that would be doing the world a favour. If you just drop that knife now though…"

For a few more seconds, Mrs Carmody kept staring at her, her lips moving soundlessly; then, she let out a high-pitched shriek that made Willow's ears ring and charged at her, the knife raised at stomach height, the redhead having a second to see the insane glint in her eyes before Pat was in front of her, a low grunt coming from her when the knife was rammed into her stomach. Shocked cries emerged from the crowd again when, without missing a beat, she reached up with both hands and grabbed the by now insanely laughing Mrs Carmody's head; a noise that sounded like a thick twig breaking echoed through the supermarket, the laughter stopped abruptly and the woman's body went limp, her eyes staring up at the ceiling without seeing anything when the demon let her go and she fell to the floor, her broken neck causing her head to end up in an unnaturally twisted position.

With another grunt, Pat grasped the handle of the knife and pulled it out; for a few more seconds, blood was streaming from the wound, then it closed, the stomachs of several people turning at the fleshy noises that came along with the healing.

"You killed her", one woman finally broke the silence, her voice squeaky high and trembling, "you monster…!"

"Oh come on", Ollie threw in before anyone else could say something, "you didn't miss anything of what just happened, right? Your beloved religious leader here tried to murder someone who so far only has been helpful to us, even saved Jamie's life, she only got what was coming to her."

"Sweetie, you can turn back now", Willow whispered to her girlfriend, noticing how everyone sans David, Ollie and Irene took several steps back from her; after a moment, Pat did just that, noticing that her pants were ruined moments later and nearly sending David into hysterics by blushing deeply.

"Great", someone at the back of the small crowd mumbled, "now the monsters are not just out there, but in here, as well."

"Hey!" the demon snapped, offended, forgetting her embarrassing pants problem for the moment, "shut your trap there, you really wanna compare me to those bugs which are too stupid to realize that they can't eat that glass front?!"

"Please don't eat me", the guy meekly replied, looking as if he was close to being the second man who'd wet his pants; Pat just snorted, then was distracted by Irene when the elder woman demonstrated a surprising amount of practical thinking by shoving a pair of jogging pants into her hands.

"Thanks", she mumbled, giving the followers of the recently deceased Mrs Carmody another warning look before she set off to change into the new pants, Willow following her a moment later, trying not to think about how her girlfriend demoning out might make this situation even worse than it already was.

* * *

"I can't believe I did that", Pat mumbled ten minutes later, sitting on the table in the store manager's small office, the first room she had found suitable for changing into the jogging pants, ignoring the non-smoking sign on the wall as she blew a cloud of smoke towards the ceiling, "what was I thinking? Demoning out in front of all those people? God, I'm so dumb."

"Aw, Sweetie, no", Willow tried to calm her down, moving closer to her so she could hug her, mindful of the glowing cigarette between her fingers though, "I wish it hadn't been necessary too, and I don't even wanna know what they are doing and saying out there right now, but now that I have had time to think about it… There really wasn't anything else you could have done to stop this crazy woman."

"I could have knocked her out without showing them all my furrier side", Pat argued, raising an eyebrow when at once, Willow shook her head.

"They never would have let go of you for you to do that if you hadn't burned them", she then pointed out, "and if she'd stabbed you in your less hairy form, you would've had to demon out afterwards anyway to heal it, so…"

"I wonder if they'll try to stone us with pea cans the moment we step outside again", the demon sighed after a moment of pondering this and considering that her girlfriend had made a good point, her eyebrow wandering up again when the witch let out a giggle in reply.

"Sorry", she finally brought out, "I'm not laughing at what you said, I just remembered how Myron pissed himself when you growled at him, and how you blushed after you returned to that much more attractive form and realized your pants are ruined…"

"Oh I liked those pants", Pat sighed out, then smiled as well, having to admit that in hindsight, it was pretty funny how Myron had wet his pants.

"At least your boxers didn't get ruined", the witch smirked in reply, "and I doubt many of the people out there noticed that they are light blue, with a Scoobie Doo print. Plus, your shirt survived it as well, so I guess you were lucky."

"Yup", the demon agreed, finishing her cigarette and, to Willow's shock, putting it out on the manager's desk, shrugging when she noticed the look on her girlfriend's face.

"That guy's a douche", she then stated, as if that would explain it; shrugging it off, the redhead took the chance given by the lack of a cigarette to move even closer to her partner, putting both arms around her neck and smiling when the embrace finally was returned.

"And once again, you saved me out there", she mumbled, once more briefly forgetting about their troublesome situation as she got lost in her girlfriend's warm gaze, "you've done that so often since we started being together, it's really becoming a habit."

"Well, it's surely not one I wanna kick", the black haired woman gave back, smirking slightly, "I love you too much for that."

"I love you, too", Willow replied, her voice barely above a whisper now; then, without thinking about how this might be inappropriate after she almost had been killed just minutes ago and another woman actually had died, she leaned in for a kiss which soon deepened, both of them once more forgetting their troubles and the dangers waiting for them for quite some time not long afterwards.


	14. Chapter 14

When they joined the others in the supermarket's main area again almost an hour later, David gave them a knowing smirk, raising his eyebrows suggestively; in response, Pat just smirked as well and shrugged while Willow cleared her throat, then looked around to see if anything had happened while they had been gone, surprised to see that Mrs Carmody's body had been removed and that her followers had retreated to one of the corners at the back of the supermarket, sitting there in silence, obviously mourning the death of their leader.

"Think they're gonna make trouble once more?" the demon asked after spotting them as well, gesturing at them with one hand; shaking his head, David rolled his eyes, his voice full of contempt when he replied. "They kinda went into shell shock mode or something like that, just sitting there and bawling because Mrs Carmody's kicked the bucket."

"You don't seem all too upset about her death", Willow observed in response, not letting it show how glad she was about that – after she had been able to think straight again, she had been worried for a moment that their newfound friends might resent her partner for what she had done now, but at least with David, this wasn't the case.

"You know, I would have felt bad for her if she had died under different circumstances, if a monster ate her or something", the young man replied, "but after how she wanted to kill you? No sympathies there."

"Good to know", Pat commented, only to yelp a second later when David turned to her and punched her shoulder, giving her an accusing look.

"Ow, man, what the Hell was that for", the demon complained, making the young man huff and cross his arms over his chest before he gave her a strict look.

"For lying to me", he then clarified, "you said that the fireshow is all you can do when I asked what you're capable of, and didn't tell me you could turn into this… Hank-McCoy-like creature!"

"Again with the X-Men comparison", the black haired woman complained, making her girlfriend giggle, "and, well, I had my reasons for not telling you that, I was hoping it wouldn't be necessary to do that anyway and I didn't want to freak you out!"

"Psh", David let out as an answer, "as if that would have freaked me out, remember how cool I was when you did your little fire-and-healing thing back there. Anyway, can you do that at will or does it just happen when you're angry, like with the Hulk?"

"At will", the demon let him know, "even though I can also do the growling in that form. I think it sounds more impressive the other way though, but Willow disagrees."

"It always sounds the same", Willow defended said disagreement, "you just always do it louder when you're demoned out because you're usually very pissed off then."

"Did you know about this when you got together?" Irene now decided to join the conversation as well, sounding so curious that it made the witch laugh, her laughter increasing when she nodded and the elder woman's eyes went wide.

"Well, I didn't know what she looked like as a demon", the redhead then clarified, "but I knew she is one, yeah…"

"And I missed it all!" Norm complained as he joined the group as well, holding an ice bag to his nose even though it had been almost one and a half hours since he had taken that punch, "that's so typical! Dammit! Can you show me? Please, please, please!"

"Um, at our next cigarette break, okay?" Pat gave back, looking around pointedly, "I don't exactly want to remind the people here about it, they might freak out again."

"Good point", Norm sighed, then realized that his ice pack by now contained mostly water and carelessly threw it aside, grimacing when he noticed that Bud had seen and now was looking at him strictly, didn't bother to say anything though – apparently, he had given up on trying to keep things in order when people had started threatening each other with knives and a perfectly ordinary looking woman had decided to change into some sort of big, hairy beast.

"Nice broken nose you got there", Pat observed once the ice bag was out of the way and she could see the damage which had been done to the poor teenager, "that must hurt."

"Actually, after holding an ice pack to it for like an hour, it's just numb", Norm shrugged, "but it'll stay crooked when it heals, right?"

"Probably", the demon agreed, then smirked and playfully bumped her fist against his shoulder, her next words making him laugh. "Some girls dig the look of battle-hardened men though, and you can claim that are you one now, I mean, you have been in two battles. Once against a tentacle monster and once against Mrs Carmody's Cult of Brainwashed Evil Zealots."

"But I didn't do much in any of those fights", Norm reminded her of his rather passive role; rolling her eye, Pat told him that of course, he wouldn't need to mention that when talking up a pretty girl and that leaving out things wasn't technically a lie, making him laugh once more while Willow gave her a strict look and shook her head, then scolded her for putting such things into an innocent teenager's mind.

"Aw, thanks", Norm smirked, "but trust me, I've stopped being innocent when I was ten." This made the demon chuckle, and the bag boy beamed at her before he raised his hand, palm outwards; still smirking, Pat high-fived him, Willow shaking her head at their antics, her next words making them both laugh once more, all of them aware that this bit of banter was needed to lighten up the tense atmosphere. "And you're _really_ sure you're not related?"

* * *

Another hour later, Pat and Willow had made themselves comfortable on the seat cushions they had used during the night, drinking warm and thus not very yummy coke and eating sandwiches Billy's babysitter had made for them; by now, the kid was going into full whining mode, claiming again and again that he wanted to go home to his mommy, asking his father over and over if he thought that mommy was fine.

"I really hope she will be", the witch muttered to the demon, making her nod; so far, the child had been surprisingly brave, after all the attacks and the horror he had witnessed, but she knew that sooner or later, his mind wouldn't be able to take all the strain anymore.

"And I hope we'll find a way to get out of here soon", she thus said, taking another bite of her sandwich while it was Willow's turn to nod, a sigh escaping her afterwards.

"I'd do a locator spell, but I don't know if it'll work on the monsters out there and even if I did, I have none of the stuff I need for it here", she then said, looking dismayed. "I should always take some sort of emergency magic bag with me or something."

"Like a first aid kit", Pat smirked, making her girlfriend nod once more; they both finished their food and washed it down with warm coke, simultaneously grimacing at the taste.

"Any other spells you can think of?" the demon then asked, giving her best to hide her dismay when Willow sighed, then shook her head, looking quite glum as well.

"I've been racking my mind ever since this started", she told her lover, "but the only thing I could come up with so far is a teleport spell, and I don't want to get the two of us out of here and leave the rest of them behind. Plus, we don't know how far this has spread…"

"You think it's not just in that town?" Pat gave back, horrified; surprised that she hadn't thought of that as well, Willow shrugged, idly playing with the hem of her shirt as she replied. "I don't know. I hope it is, the thought of that mist and those monsters going everywhere… If only we knew where it came from."

"Maybe some strong wind?" the demon suggested after thinking for a while, "to blow the mist away? Then we at least could see what is out there, waiting for us in case we try to leave."

"Not sure if this would work", Willow gave back, sighing to herself, "this really would be easier if I had some stuff for doing magic here…"

"You really should consider getting that first aid magic kit", Pat advised her, making her nod; they shared a quick, but gentle kiss, then the demon came to her feet and let her partner know that she'd go and have a cigarette, rolling her eye while adding that Norm would probably tag along and insist on seeing her demon form.

"Just be glad that he's so enthusiastic about it, and not freaking out", the redhead smirked in reply, "admit it, you like him."

"Yeah, he's an ok kid", Pat smirked, stealing another quick kiss before she headed to the storeroom; and just as she had predicted, Norm spotted her going there and quickly followed her, asking her to show him her "other side", as he called it, the moment the door had fallen close behind him.

"Oh I wanna see it too", Jamie commented from his seat on a bag of kitty litter; raising an eyebrow, Pat reminded him of the fact that David had told the people outside about how Willow and she had healed him and that thus, he could go outside again, a smirk forming on her face again at his reply.

"Yeah I tried, but they all pestered me about how you did it and how it felt and stuff and so, I went back in here to have some peace", Jamie let her know, sounding annoyed at the antics of the others; chuckling, Pat gave her best to show some sympathy, but failed, unable to keep herself from smirking as she replied. "I guess they're too afraid of me to pester me…"

"I'm not", Norm reminded her of his presence, "so come on, show it to me now, please!"

"Fine", Pat sighed, "you won't stop until I do it anyway. But step back, I don't want to burn you and I can only make the flames go away when I'm done."

Nodding, his eyes shining with excitement, Norm stepped back, his eyes never leaving her; with another sigh, the demon wondered when people had stopped being afraid of her and saw her as some kind of attraction instead, then briefly hoped that this time, her pants would survive before she finally demoned out, not able to hold back the smirk when Norm immediately started to grin wildly and even bounced on the spot a bit.

"Awesome", he happily said the moment Pat had gotten done and had made the flames vanish, moving closer to her and looking at her, "even your teeth got bigger and sharper! Wow!"

"And pointier", the demon rumbled, showing said teeth, her grin at his surprisingly high squeal of joy looking much more malicious than usual, thanks to how pointed and sharp exactly they had become when she'd demoned out.

"Seen enough?" she asked after Norm had just stared for a minute; after he had nodded, she returned to her more pleasant form, glad that the jogging pants Irene had found for her had survived the process.

"How come your clothing doesn't burn?" Jamie asked from behind her, sounding fascinated; shrugging, the demon turned around to look at him, her reply making him chuckle slightly. "To save me from the embarrassment of standing there naked every time? Honestly, I'm not even sure why, it sometimes does happen when I'm not controlling it well enough, but it's been quite some time since that last happened. I think it was before I even met Willow."

"I bet that bothers her", Norm teased, only to blush brightly at the taller woman's quick-witted reply. "Not really, she can get me out of my clothes without the help of fire any time."

"Should have figured that she'd reply something like that, buddy", Jamie chuckled at the sight of the teenager's reddened face; clearing his throat, Norm just shrugged, then smiled again at last when Pat once more punched his shoulder lightly, only to grow serious again the next second, shuffling his feet.

"Um, I know this'll sound kinda cheesy and everything", he mumbled, studying the concrete floor as if it suddenly had become very interesting, "but, well… I'm glad that Willow and you are here, that surely made all this shit easier…"

"Well, I'd lie if I'd say that I'm glad to be here", Pat honestly replied, making the teenager frown, "but I can honestly say that I'm glad it wasn't just Mrs Carmody and those willing to follow her in here when all that shit started, but some smart-minded people as well."

"I'll take that as a compliment", Norm chuckled, his smile widening when Pat told him it was meant to be one, then finished her cigarette and let them know that she'd go and join her girlfriend again, leaving the storeroom to do just that not even a minute later.


	15. Chapter 15

It didn't take the demon long to find her partner, the redhead sitting on the ground and once more playing a game with Billy, this time thumb-wrestling him; it was obvious to Pat that Willow was letting the kid win, but clearly Billy had no idea about it, laughing happily every time he won, for the moment even forgetting that he wanted to go home and be with his mother.

"I won again!" he cried out just when Pat sat down next to her girlfriend, "that's four in a row! Do I get a reward?"

"Yes, sure", Willow gave back, glad that she was sitting to close to the candy bar section of the aisle and thus could provide a reward easily by just reaching over and picking one, handing it to Billy, the boy's eyes lighting up.

"Yay, candy!" he exclaimed, then greedily tore the wrapper open and started eating; smiling, the redhead watched him for a moment, then looked at her girlfriend and asked how Norm had reacted to her furry side.

"With enthusiasm", the demon chuckled, shuffling closer to her and putting one arm around her shoulders, making her smile, "I guess he felt as if he suddenly started living in a comic book or something. Then he got cheesy though and told us how happy he is that you and me are stuck here with him."

"Aww", Willow cooed, "that's not cheesy, that's nice! You didn't say to him that it's cheesy, right?"

"He said himself that it'll sound cheesy", the black haired woman shrugged, "so I didn't have to."

"Sometimes I wonder how you can tell me that you love me without feeling embarrassed about how cheesy that is, too", Willow told her, almost managing to keep a straight face; chuckling slightly, Pat took the time to kiss her quickly before she replied, her words making the witch's heart melt. "Well, you do know that I'm not exactly comfortable with saying such mushy things, but hey, I got better about that, right?"

"Definitely", Willow reassured her, smiling as she leaned in for another kiss; before their lips could meet though, Ollie interrupted, having the grace to blush when he realized that he had managed to approach them just as they had been about to have a tender moment.

"Um, sorry", he apologized, "is this a bad time? I could come back later…"

"Sit down and spill the beans", Willow gave back, patting the tiled floor next to her; smiling slightly, the bald man shook his head, then explained that, if he'd sit down now he'd have trouble getting up again thanks to his bad back and that he'd rather remain standing.

"Spill the beans standing then", Pat shrugged, making him nod before he cleared his throat, clearly searching for the right words for a few moments, then finally speaking on. "Well, David and I had a talk, and we've decided that we've been sitting around here long enough now… We're thinking about leaving, and well, we decided to ask if you want to come along."

"And go where?" Willow demanded to know, frowning, remembering the horrible thought that had come up in her mind when she had talked about possible magic solutions to the dilemma to her girlfriend earlier, "we don't know how far this mist has spread, right? What if we drive off and it doesn't end, but the gasoline of the car runs out?"

"We thought about that, too", Ollie admitted, "but David wants to take the risk, instead of just sitting around here waiting for something to happen…"

"I don't think this is a good idea", Pat sighed, "as much as I'm all for pro-active behaviour and usually don't like it to sit around uselessly, it's too much of a risk to take, don't you think? We have no idea how far that stuff has spread, we can't know that, and the thought of getting stranded somewhere out there in a car in the middle of a mist filled with creepy crawlies, well… I don't like it."

"So you're not in on it?" Ollie asked her to clarify, sighing when she nodded, then got up so she could look him in the eye.

"Look", she tried to explain, "I'd go out there with you in a heartbeat if it was just me. But, honestly, I don't want to subject Willow to that risk, and David shouldn't want to do the same to his son, either."

"Billy is the main reason why David wants to try", Ollie let her know in reply, sighing again at the way she raised an eyebrow. "He's worried what this might do to the boy's sanity in the long run", the bald man explained, "and of course he wants to make sure his wife is okay…"

"Well", the demon gave back, choosing her words carefully, "if that mist spread all the way to their house, then… um…"

"She probably won't be", Ollie mumbled, keeping his voice low so Billy wouldn't hear him. "Still, David wants to know for sure", he then added, "you'd want the same, right?"

"Of course", Pat sighed, "I understand him, of course I do, but it's still an awfully big risk to take."

"Wait a bit longer", Willow suggested, finally getting up as well and joining the more or less private talk of the two, prompting Billy to wander off and find his babysitter since he felt bored, all alone on the ground, "we've been trying to come up with a magic solution to this whole mess, just give us a bit more time to think about it…"

"I'll tell him that", Ollie immediately agreed, sounding so relieved that it made the redhead smirk, "to be honest, I wasn't all too happy with that idea either, but I didn't want to let him go alone."

"Just ask him for a few more hours", Pat suggested in reply, "he should be fine with that, right?"

"I hope so", Ollie mumbled, then went off to find David and make the suggestion; with a sigh, Willow sat back down and ran both hands through her hair, the demon making herself comfortable next to her as well after a moment, putting one arm around her again when she spoke up and the black haired woman realized how dismayed her partner sounded. "I still have no idea what to do, but now I really have to come up with something or David will leave, along with Ollie and Billy… You know we can't let that happen."

"I know", Pat agreed, pulling her close and placing a reassuring kiss on the top of her head, "and I think you can do it… Just try to clear you mind and you'll come up with something."

"I hope so", Willow sighed, then leaned her head against the taller woman's shoulder; the demon tenderly started to caress her hair, trying to help her relax, unaware of how the witch's mind raced as she tried to figure out how to get them all out of this mess.

* * *

An hour later, Willow still hadn't been able to come up with any useful spell she could do without any ingredients; she cursed the fact that she had gone out with anything even remotely related to magic for the hundredth time, even though she knew that this didn't change anything, shaking her head in dismay when Pat asked her if there was anything she could do to help.

"Not really, unless you can find me some stuff I can use for spells", she then sighed, exasperatedly running both hands through her hair once more.

"This will end badly, I won't be able to come up with anything and David will take Billy and go out there and will get eaten", she then went on, not even noticing how close to hyperventilating she was, "and it'll be my fault, partly at least because I can't think of anything I can do to help, and, and…"

"Hey", Pat finally managed to interrupt her, after two useless tries, "remember when you told me not to do that when I started angsting about how I shouldn't have taken you here? Well, it's my turn now – don't do that."

"But I can't think of anything!" Willow cried out, now close to tears, "except for stupid little useless spells, which wouldn't be any good anyway, I mean, who needs me to pull a rabbit out of a hat now, right? And if I can't think of anything, they'll—"

Not sure how else to calm her down, Pat stopped her from going into full-blown babble mode by leaning in and kissing her; this did make her fall silent, as it had been planned, and when the black haired woman pulled back, the witch seemed to be a bit calmer, as well.

"Maybe we can distract the monsters with those rabbits you can pull out of your hat", the demon mumbled, reaching up with one hand to caress the redhead's cheek tenderly, "and even if not, it's not helping anyone if you work yourself into a panic attack, especially not yourself. If you can't figure something out, we'll go with them and try to help them, as foolish as that might be, and you know I'll do everything to protect you then, right?"

"I know", the witch gave back, taking a deep breath before she spoke on, not wanting to talk herself closer to the edge again, "but… it's just…"

"What?" Pat tenderly asked, Willow taking another deep breath as an answer, her voice so low that the demon had to strain to hear her when she finally continued.

"Ever since this started, I've felt so… useless", she admitted, studying the seat cushion she was sitting on. "I know it's silly, you don't have to tell me that", she added when she noticed her partner's surprised look, "but… Well, you've done all the fighting, because of course you're good at that and I'm not, you've been useful to this whole thing and made it much easier for everyone… All I did was nearly getting myself killed by that crazy Mrs Carmody, if it hadn't been for you."

"And you've saved Jamie's life", Pat reminded her, momentarily stunned that her partner had forgotten about that. "If it hadn't been for you and your magic, he would've died by now. You know that, right? And you're not useless at all. I couldn't have done half of those heroic deeds without you here to support me."

"That's so sweet", Willow sighed out, to the demon's relief much calmer by now, "and this after you said you're not good with cheesy stuff."

"I have my good moments", Pat smiled, glad that it had worked and that her partner had calmed down again, "and now, no more of this talk about being useless, okay?"

"I'll try", the redhead agreed, "it surely would help if I finally could come up with something…"

"Well, we can use those rabbits as bait", the demon repeated her previous joke, smirking when she received a light punch to the upper arm in response; shaking her head, Willow gave her a strict look, then leaned against her again, sounding thoughtful when she replied. "You know, maybe the idea you had earlier wasn't that bad… About a wind blowing the mist away. Maybe I can do that without any ingredients, if I can get enough silence so I can focus."

"I'll just demon out and growl at everyone to shut the fuck up", Pat suggested, "then they'll be scared shitless and will be quiet."

"Or they'll freak out and run around, screaming", Willow giggled, "then it would be exactly what I don't need."

"You question my ability to scare people into silence? I'm shocked", the demon smirked, making her giggle again; she shrugged, then leaned in for another kiss, the last bit of her worries about how useful she might be in this situation blown away when she felt the taller woman's lips on hers again.


	16. Chapter 16

"Alright everybody, listen up!" Pat called out half an hour later, after another short discussion during which they had decided that it was worth a try to conjure up a strong wind so the mist would be blown away, and during which Willow had realized that she had no other tricks up her sleeve, much to her dismay, "my lovely girlfriend here is going to try some magic so we can get rid of this mist, but for that to work, she needs everyone to be quiet. And when I say quiet, I mean quiet, okay? No whispering, no shrieking when pretty lights appear, absolute silence. It might get quite windy out there if it works the way it's supposed to, so I suggest you all move to the back of the store."

"Why are you only coming up with this now?" Myron bravely called out, even though he looked as if he was close to turning and running away when the demon's gaze focused on him, the memory of how she had looked in her less pleasant form and how she had growled at him clearly still fresh in his mind.

"You think your beloved cult leader would have just let her do some magic without trying to fuck it up?" Pat pleasantly asked, smirking when Myron just stuttered for a few moments, then stepped back, his face colouring as he clearly had no comeback to that.

"Anyone else got any questions?" she asked, raising an eyebrow when an elder man slowly raised his hand, sounding as if he was afraid that she might rip his head off any moment when he spoke up. "Um… Do you want us to go to the back because you're afraid the glass front might break? What if the monsters come in then?"

"We don't know yet if the mist and the monsters are connected", Pat told him in reply, giving her best to sound friendly since so far, she hadn't noticed the guy in any negative – or positive – way and thus didn't want him to be afraid of her, even though she couldn't really blame him after her little "See a real demon" performance, "but we have good reason to think that they are, so maybe we'll be lucky and, even if that megalomaniac window should break, they'll be gone along with the mist by then."

"And what if they're not gone then? They'll see us much easier", another man threw in, making the demon frown as she had to admit that he had a good point.

"I can create a magic barrier then instead of the glass", Willow was the one to answer that, "that will keep the monsters out. I hope it won't be necessary though."

"Me too", the guy mumbled, accepting this answer though since he sat back down; after they had waited for half a minute to see if anyone else had any questions and no one said anything, Pat took charge again, telling the men and women in the store to move to the back so no one would be in any danger of getting hurt, should something unexpected happen.

To her relief, they all did as she had asked them to, moving to the other side of the supermarket without another word; there, they all huddled together, nervously watching how Willow took in a deep breath, then moved to the store's door, all of the men and women watching covering their mouths to remain quiet when she pulled it open. Quickly, Pat bent down and picked up the axe she had gotten from Ollie, then followed her outside; she hoped that she wouldn't need the weapon, but it would be better to have it in case some beastie decided to pop out of the mist.

"Hope you won't need this", the witch mumbled, making her partner smirk at how similar their thoughts were; she nodded, then stood behind the redhead so she wouldn't distract her in any way, clutching the axe tightly while Willow took in a deep breath, closing her eyes as she gave her best to relax and to attune herself to the elements, well aware of how the slightest mistake could turn the wind she wanted to conjure into a twister or a hurricane.

Giving her best to even breathe as silently as possible, Pat watched how the witch finally raised both hands, looking up into the sky; she started mumbling under her breath to herself, her voice too low to let Pat understand anything of what she was saying, but whatever it was, it was obvious that it had an effect – half a minute after she had started talking, a light breeze came up, quickly becoming stronger and turning into proper wind. Holding back the urge to say something encouraging, Pat smirked to herself as the wind grew stronger and stronger; finally, the wind had turned into a howling gale, the redhead letting out a heavy breath as she lowered her hands again, beaming when she turned to face her partner.

"I did it!" she cried out proudly, the mist behind her not withstanding the winds she had conjured and slowly beginning to part, "I really did it! Isn't that…!" She trailed off when she saw her lover's good eye widen; before she could ask for the reason though, the demon already brought up the axe and snapped "Duck!", the witch knowing her well enough by now to just do as she had been told without thinking twice, thus dropping to her knees and pulling her head between her shoulders.

Briefly, she heard the flapping of wings above her, then the axe was swung; moments later, a strangely sounding mix of gurgle and yelp came, followed by the noise of two pieces of a body hitting the ground.

"Oh jeez", Pat muttered, "that stupid thing nearly got you, I almost didn't see it coming…"

"Good thing you did in the end", Willow muttered, looking at the thing her partner just had killed; it looked like a strange, freaky mixture of a bumblebee and praying mantis, with tiny wings and large forelegs which ended in dangerously sharp claws, its body covered with yellow and brown fur.

"Looking at that makes my brain hurt", the redhead muttered after a moment, shaking her head; then, she turned around to see how her spell had worked out, and her breath got caught in her throat, all thoughts wiped out of her mind as for the first time since this had started, they saw what the mist had been hiding.

* * *

"Jesus Christ", Willow brought out after just standing and staring for almost a full minute, this choice of words showing how deeply the impact of the sight had been; behind her, all Pat could do was put one hand on her shoulder, her mouth too dry to allow her to say anything, not even a single word.

On the opposite side of the street, something which looked like a genetically mutated dog was slumping blindly down the sidewalk; where its eyes should have been, there was just wrinkled, pink and brown skin, the stub of a hairless tail moving back and forth as it staggered along on four misshapen legs, a fifth, much shorter and thus useless one dangling from the things tummy, saliva dripping from teeth which were too big for the creature's snout and to the sidewalk.

Above the dog-thing, another one of the bumblebee-monsters was flying; and behind it, something which looked like an overweight snake with tiny hands was crawling, its small black eyes firmly fixed on the blind dog-thing in front of it, making the witch wonder if it was planning to attack and eat that other monster. Somehow, she managed to tear her gaze away from that absurd trio; no matter where she looked, she saw other abominations though, her eyes beginning to ache and to water as she tried to take it all in, some of the creatures just looking too _wrong_ to let her do so though.

"Come on", Pat now whispered behind her, sounding as if it took all her willpower to just utter those two words, "let's go back inside… Before one of those things sees us and decides we'd make a good snack…"

Nodding, Willow forced herself to turn away, nearly shrieking when her gaze fell on the glass front of the supermarket and she was greeted by a row of pale faces staring out at her through the slits in the wall of dog food bags; she managed to hold the noise inside though, not wanting to imagine what might happen if she'd let it out and thus gain the attention of the monsters on the street.

Quickly, but as quietly as possible, Pat pushed the door open and let Willow enter first; then, she stepped inside and hurriedly closed the door again, glad when none of the creatures outside paid them any attention, all of them continuing minding their own business, whatever that business was.

"Well", David was the first one to speak up, "now the mist is gone, good job Willow, but the monsters are still there. At least we can see them now."

"I wish we couldn't", Norm complained, his voice trembling, "they're so… so awful! Looking at them gives me a headache."

"Me too, if it calms you down", Pat let him know, frowning at what Ollie replied after he had let out a nervous chuckle. "And you're lucky, you only see half of them!"

"Dude, not funny", the demon muttered, making the bald man clear his throat – before he apologized, telling her that he didn't know where that had come from and that he sometimes said stupid things when he was close to freaking out.

"They didn't pay much attention to the two of you though", the man who had brought up his concern about the window breaking and monsters entering the store before Willow had cast the spell now pointed out, "maybe they stopped being hostile towards us…?"

"I think they just didn't notice us", Willow gave back, regretting that she had been forced to shoot down his hopes when she saw his face fall, but well aware of the fact that she couldn't just them all believe that and march out into what might be certain death, "we didn't make too much noise after all, we were too shocked by how they looked."

"And that one bumblebee-thing did notice us", Pat reminded the guy, destroying his hopes even further; before he could say anything though, Myron spoke up, clenching his fists at his sides, sweat trailing down his cheeks, to the worry of everyone else – even the former followers of Mrs Carmody, who by now had more or less returned to sanity, with the woman who had constantly worked to push them over the edge gone. "Or maybe they recognized the two of you for what you are…"

"Oh please", Pat sighed, "Myron… Change your tune. No one here cares for that particular one anymore."

"You won't shut me up", the mechanic gave back, the tremble in his voice increasing, then looked at the people around him with wide eyes, not even noticing how they all stepped back from him, as if they could smell how close to the edge he was.

"Have you all forgotten?" he bellowed, gesturing at the couple, "she's a monster and that other one's a witch! You just saw what they could do! Why are you all so accepting of this?!"

"Um, well", one of the two soldiers spoke up when no one else did, "I didn't catch all that was going on, but as far as I remember, she only turned into that monster when Mrs Carmody threatened to kill her partner, so…"

"You got the most important parts, then", David gave back, "and let me add that those two never started any of the aggression, it always came from Mrs Carmody and her band of followers. So, Myron, back off and leave them alone."

"Oh I will", Myron gave back, a smile the couple didn't like at all forming on his face, "after I did what we should have done the moment this… creature… showed her true form to us…"

Before Pat could protest and inform him that her demon side was just part of her, just like her human side, he reached into one of the pockets of his grubby overalls – and pulled out a gun, shocked cries emerging from the people around him.

"That's mine!" Bud shouted, making the situation even more surreal than it already was; and then, before the demon or the witch could react in any way, Norm suddenly was there, swinging a shovel and hitting Myron on the back of the head with it as hard as he could, sending him to the ground, the gun flying out of his hand and clattering to the floor. As fast as she could, Willow shot forward and picked it up, making sure he wouldn't get his hands on it again; it was obvious that the mechanic hadn't even been thinking about grabbing the gun again though, lying on the ground and holding his head with both hands, moaning softly to himself.

"You leave them alone!" Norm now shouted at him, his voice high-pitched with excitement so big that it was close to hysteria, raising the shovel threateningly, "or I'll beat you to death with this, I swear!"

"Norm", Pat tried to gain his attention, moving past the whimpering Myron without wasting as much as a glance on him, sensing how close to losing it the teenager was, "that was good, really, perfect reaction and you got a mean swing, but I think he got the message. Give me the shovel."

"He wanted to shoot you", Norm pressed out in reply, sounding as if he was close to tears, "so I just… hit him… I could have killed him!"

"Yeah, but you didn't", the demon reassuringly gave back, the rest watching in breathless silence; several of the elder customers had known Norm when he still had been playing in the sandbox, and they all knew that he'd never been in any fights before, preferring to just walk away instead of dishing out violence. "You did a good thing, I mean it. But now give me that shovel."

Without taking his eyes off the still whimpering and groaning Myron and the blood which was dripping from the wound he had caused with his blow, Norm did so, handing the shovel to the demon; then, he slowly looked at her, with tears glistening in his eyes now, suddenly looking much younger than his actual seventeen years.

"I've never done such a thing before", he pressed out, "but… he wanted to hurt you…"

"It's okay", Pat reassured him, momentarily a bit taken aback when in response, the teenager stepped up to her and hugged her; then, when he started to cry at last, she got over her brief surprise and put her free arm around him, rubbing his back soothingly until he slowly calmed down again.


	17. Chapter 17

"Aw man", Jamie complained twenty minutes later, as a securely tied up Myron was shoved into the storeroom, "now I have to spend time here with him?"

"You can come back outside", David gave back, smirking slightly, "everyone knows you're fine."

"Yeah, but they keep pestering me about that healing thing", Jamie sighed, then looked at Myron again, clearly weighing the pros and cons of staying here with him and going outside; finally, he decided on the second option and left the storeroom for the second time since he had been healed, only to stop dead in his tracks when he saw Norm sitting close to the door leading there, drinking whiskey from a paper cup.

"You're too young to drink", he finally brought out, making the teenager look at him with puffy, red eyes; next to him, Pat shook her head, then told him that in this case, it was medicine, not alcohol, making him shrug before he wandered off to find something to eat.

"Feeling better?" Pat asked the teenager next to her when he downed the rest of the whiskey, then grimaced, clearly not used to the taste; clearing his throat, he took a moment to handle the alcohol going down, then nodded, giving the demon an embarrassed look before he replied. "I can't believe I started bawling like that after I hit that idiot. I feel like such a kid now."

"Well, you are just seventeen", Pat pointed out, "and you've never been in a fight before, right?"

"Yeah", Norm sighed, "I know that is so lame, but I always just left when it looked as if things were about to get violent."

"That's not lame at all", Pat reassured him, smirking at the surprised look he gave her in reply. "Yeah, I know it's weird to hear that from me", she then went on, "I'm one of those who's fast to use her fists, Willow says my motto is Hit first, ask afterwards. That's part of what I am, you know, demon, but you're human, and if there were more people like you, the world would probably be a better place."

"Clearly, I'm just like that until someone threatens somebody I like with a gun", Norm muttered in reply, rolling his eyes afterwards as he remembered something else. "And the thing wasn't even loaded, remember? Bud said so when Ollie yelled at him for not telling anyone about having a gun here! Myron couldn't even have done anything to you."

"But no one knew that", Pat pointed out, "and to be honest, when he pulled out that gun, I thought I'd shit my pants for a moment, I was so freaked out."

"But you can heal", Norm gave back, sounding so surprised that the demon chuckled again, "why would you be afraid of a gun?"

"Well, I can only heal in that demon form", she informed him, "and to demon out, I have to be standing up, don't ask me why, that's just the way it is. Kinda hard to do that when your spine has been shattered by a bullet or your guts are falling out."

"Please don't give me such visuals", Norm meekly pleaded in reply, making a face at her when she chuckled again; then, she patted his shoulder and embarrassed him once more by telling him that he was a good kid before she went to join her girlfriend again, the teenager remaining where he was with a blissful look on his face.

* * *

"Is Norm feeling better?" Willow demanded to know immediately after the demon had found her at the grill where the butcher had started barbecuing again, and had been busy informing the witch about the dangers of salmonella and why he thus wouldn't use any of the chicken anymore, but that the beef was still okay, a smile forming on her face when Pat nodded, leaning against the cooler next to her and throwing a longing glance at the grill before she replied. "Yeah, the whiskey helped, even though, judging from the look on his face, he didn't really like it. But then I embarrassed him again by telling him that he's a good kid."

"Now his crush on you will be back to full force", Willow giggled, "if I didn't know that your heart belongs strictly to me, I'd get jealous."

"You know, for a moment, I wanted to ask him if he only started to cry so he could cuddle with me", the taller woman smirked in reply, "but then I realized that this would have been cruel, so I didn't. The poor guy was really upset."

"I was surprised actually", Willow said, "I mean, I understand that it can be upsetting to hit someone, but he really reacted quite strongly."

"Well, he never did something like that before", Pat pointed out, "and don't forget that you're just more used to it because of your friends, not to mention your girlfriend."

"Good point", Willow admitted, then looked at the grill again, clearly hungry as well, nearly having to force herself to look at her girlfriend again a few moments later. "David wants to leave after we ate something", she let the demon know, "now that the mist is gone and we can see. Ollie and he are discussing if they should drive or walk."

"I think walking is safer", Pat said after thinking about it for a few seconds, "those things didn't seem to react to us, maybe they'll ignore us if we're just quiet. Cars are not very quiet."

"You're right", the witch realized after thinking about it for a moment, "that bumblebee-thing only reacted to me when I got excited about the spell working and was quite… loud. Afterwards, when we were quiet, the other monsters just ignored us…"

"We should tell David that", the demon decided in reply, making her partner nod, "walking will take longer, but better wasting some time than ending up eaten because the car attracted the attention of some big, nasty thing."

Again, the redhead nodded her agreement, then the store's butcher distracted her by telling her that the first pieces of meat were done and could be eaten; he carefully moved them on the paper plates he had readied, then handed two of them to the couple before he looked around for any other takers, raising his voice to let everybody know that the food was ready. Moments later, David and Ollie came over to get some as well, followed by Norm, Irene and several others of the people caught in the store; once they all had gotten something to eat, the group consisting of those who were planning to leave retreated to one of the few aisles where no one else sat so far to discuss their ideas.

Quickly, Willow informed them all about their discovery, reminding them of how the monsters had left them alone when they had been quiet and suggesting that thus; they should walk; David didn't look too happy with the idea, but agreed after Ollie made it clear to him that going in a car was a too big risk.

"We should get some weapons, then", the young man decided after he had agreed to walk, "what do we have so far? The axe and the shotgun from the pharmacy, right? Does Bud have any ammo for that gun Myron found?"

"No", Ollie replied, rolling his eyes, "he told me he just wanted to use it to scare possible robbers away. We can take it along though and make a detour to the gun shop in town, there we should find more than enough ammo."

"And guns for everyone", Irene added, raising an eyebrow when immediately, both Willow and Pat claimed that they didn't want one.

"I'm not much good with guns", the demon explained at the elder woman's surprised look, gesturing at the eyepatch for emphasis, "and anyway, I can burn them all to crisps, should they come too close."

"And I've never shot a gun in my life", Willow added, ignoring that she at least had used tranquilizer guns a few times, and with success, "I'd probably end up shooting one of you or myself or something."

"I wish I had a sword, or my favourite axe", Pat sighed out, shaking her head when Ollie asked her if it was an axe similar to the one she had used here, her good eye lighting up when she told him about the battle axe she had back home, her enthusiasm about it making the witch giggle slightly.

"I think it'll be hard to find you a sword, or such an axe", David smirked as soon as she had fallen silent again, "but at least you'll have your fire."

"I'll bring some bug spray", Irene declared, shrugging when they all – sans Pat, who knew how well that had worked the last time – gave her a surprised look.

"What?" she then demanded to know, "it worked last time!"

"It did", Pat confirmed, smirking, "because I played an oversized lighter for you."

"I wish I could have seen that", Willow sighed, giggling when immediately, David and Ollie shook their heads in perfect unison, then told her about the reason for that little show, making her grimace as she tried to imagine a spider of that unholy size.

"Alright", the young man then stated, "walking it is then, with a stop at the gun shop… Then, I'd like to check out my house, see if my wife is okay…" The others nodded their agreement to that; quickly, it was settled that they'd leave after they'd all finished eating and packing up some supplies, none of them bothering to hide their excitement about finally getting out of the supermarket.

* * *

"Can I ask you something?" David approached Pat after they all had gotten done with their food and the demon was busy packing bottles of mineral water into one of the backpacks the store was selling; nodding, she looked up at him from her position crouched on the floor, her curiousness growing when she saw how uncomfortable he looked while he lowered himself into a crouch next to her.

"Ollie told me that Willow told him that you often handle such supernatural stuff in your hometown", he started, making her nod, "and I know it's probably not a nice topic for you, but…" He trailed off, looking for the right words; smirking, Pat took over him, to his relief not sounding offended or uncomfortable.

"But now you wanna know if that was how I lost my eye", she finished for him, making him nod while he cleared his throat nervously.

"I know it's not really any of my business", he then hurriedly reassured her, "but, well, you know I've seen how it looks beneath that patch and for some reason, I can't stop thinking about it."

"Yeah, it's not a pretty sight, I know", the demon admitted, "you know, that was the first time I really learned how far that healing I have goes. Not far enough to repair an eye after an insane priest caved it in with his thumb."

She only realized that this maybe hadn't been the best way to word it after doing so, since David gasped and even paled a bit; before she could ask him if he was okay though, he shook his head as if to get the mental image this had brought up out of his mind, still looking shocked afterwards.

"I got used to it by now", she thus added, in an attempt to calm him down a bit again, "it happened years ago. Hurt like a bitch though, believe me."

"I can imagine", David gave back, shuddering; Pat gave him another smirk, then changed the topic by asking if he thought that Billy would remain quiet enough so they wouldn't attract the attention of any of the monsters out there, the young man nodding immediately.

"I'll tell him it's a game", he then let her know, "then he'll give his best to not make a single noise. I just hope this will also work in case we see something really gross."

Nodding, the demon got done with filling the backpack and zipped it close, then came to her feet again and put it on; together with the young man, she went to where the rest of the group was waiting, smirking when she saw Irene's handbag was bulging with cans of bug spray.

"Not taking the risk of running out, huh", she stated, making the elder woman nod and give her a cheerful grin; smiling as well, David turned to look at the people who were watching the little group with envy, raising his voice and asking if anyone else wanted to come along, quickly explaining the planned route and that they should be save as long as they didn't make too much noise.

"I'll come", Norm stated after a moment, stepping forward, glad when no one told him that he couldn't and that he was too young; after a few more seconds, the two soldiers volunteered as well, the rest of the people remaining where they were though, mumbling amongst them that they should wait here, where it was relatively safe, for rescue, ignoring that so far, no one had showed up to save them.

"Alright", Pat stated once she was sure no one else would want to come along, "remember the rules, no more talking than absolutely necessary, and if you do talk, try to keep your voices down, okay? If there's a monster in our path, we'll avoid it as much as possible, we'll only fight if we absolutely have to."

"Have you been in the military?" one of the soldiers wanted to know in reply, his nametag identifying him as Private Jessup, "you sound like you were."

"No I wasn't", the demon declined, "but I can put on a pretty mean drill instructor bellow if necessary."

"I can imagine that", the other soldier, slightly younger than Jessup, his nametag reading "Pvt. Danes", gave back, smiling innocently at the look the taller woman shot him in reply.

"Let's go then", David ordered before the discussion about Pat's possible ability to sound like a drill instructor could be taken any further, "and remember, no talking unless necessary and if it is, talk quietly!"

They all nodded in reply, then the demon grasped her girlfriend's hand and gave it a reassuring squeeze as she sensed how nervous the witch was; bravely, Willow smiled back at her, then took in a deep breath as they left the supermarket together, giving her best to ignore the queasy feeling in her stomach and how her heart hammered up to her throat, telling herself that they were doing the right thing and that everything would be alright.


	18. Chapter 18

As quietly as possible, the group moved from the supermarket over the parking lot and to the sidewalk; they all held their breaths when they saw one of the dog-things a few feet down the road, letting them out again in perfect unison when the creature paid them no mind though, but kept shuffling away from them, apparently not having the slightest idea that they were there.

Giving the rest of the group a thumbs-up, David kept moving down the sidewalk, knowing that the gun shop was just a few blocks away; the rest did the same, then Willow suddenly stopped dead in her tracks and grabbed her partner's arm, making her stop as well, the witch's eyes wide when she gestured at something to the left. Curiously, the demon looked there, wondering if her girlfriend had seen yet another gross monster; instead, she found herself staring at something which looked like a solid ball of mist, briefly making her consider how absurd it was to think of mist as "solid", even though it was the only fitting word she could come up with, fascinated by how the ball seemed to move and turn, tendrils of mist spreading from it.

"Dammit", Private Jessup whispered next to her, making her look at him with a raised eyebrow; in response, he gestured at the mist, still making sure to keep his voice low when he spoke on. "The base is there…"

"What were you guys doing up there?" David hissed, remembering the talk of various townsfolk which so far, he always had shrugged off as silly superstition; defensively, Jessup raised his hands, casting nervous glances left and right while he replied. "I don't know! I'm just a private! They don't tell us stuff like that."

"I thought you said that talk was just silly nonsense", Pat hissed at David, not liking this turn of events; helplessly, David shrugged, clearly not sure what else to reply, and before he could come up with anything, Willow spoke up, like the others making sure to keep her voice low. "Maybe they… opened something up there and caused all this. We should go check it out and see if we can undo it."

"The four of us will go there", Pat decided after a moment, gesturing at the two soldiers, her girlfriend and herself, "the rest of you, stick to the previous plan. We'll catch up with you once we're done up there."

"Be careful", Ollie replied, while Irene looked disappointed about losing her personal, super-powered lighter; for a moment, Norm also looked as if he wanted to say something, then remained silent, realizing that he wouldn't be of much use in the base if this was where all the trouble had started and it thus was overrun by the creatures.

Nodding, Willow reassured him that they would be, then asked the two soldiers to take the lead; they did so, looking quite nervous as they started walking to the road which led to the base, the witch and the demon following them, Willow grasping her partner's hand again, her voice down to a whisper when she spoke up. "I wish they had mentioned this earlier, then we maybe could have gotten out much sooner…"

"I doubt it", the demon whispered back, "it would have been too dangerous to go through the mist, and we wouldn't have seen that it originates from the base, anyway. I doubt those two guys suspected that their base could be responsible."

"I wonder what we'll find there", the redhead muttered, smiling weakly when Pat reassuringly squeezed her hand, "and if we can get rid of whatever caused that mist… if it really did come from there."

"I think it did", the demon gave back, "at least that strange ball of mist is hanging right over the base, there must be a reason for that."

"Good point", the witch had to agree, then fell silent as ahead of them, several of the bugs they had seen during the previous night were slowly crawling across the street; the two soldiers stood stiff as statues while they waited for them to pass, not even daring to breathe, only doing so again when the last one of the things had vanished into the bushes on the other side of the street.

"It almost seems as if they're blind", Willow whispered, looking around nervously while the soldiers started walking again, their footsteps suddenly sounding awfully loud in the quiet street; nodding, Pat squeezed her hand once more, giving her best to sound soothing when she replied. "Would make sense, unless they have supernatural sight, which I doubt, they wouldn't be able to see much in that mist anyway. Which means that they have to rely on hearing and smells."

"But they were attracted to the light of the oil lamps", Danes pointed out, raising an eyebrow, "why, if they can't see?"

"The lamps stood quite close to the glass", Willow remembered in reply, "could be that they were reacting to the warmth, not to the light."

"I wish I could have a smoke", the demon sighed out, making them all look at her with surprise, since this seemed like quite the random thing to say, the black haired woman shrugging before she explained herself. "Well, I'm a nicotine junkie, but if they orientate themselves with their sense of smell as well as with hearing, I can't do that because it'll attract them."

"Poor you", Willow showed some sympathy, making her smile and shrug; then, they all fell silent again as they kept walking, steadily approaching the base, all of them growing more and more nervous as they asked themselves what they might find there.

* * *

"Jesus Christ", Jessup broke the shocked silence which had come over the quartet at reaching the base, even forgetting to keep his voice down; the other three of the small group just stood and stared, trying to take in the damage which had been done ever since the whole trouble had started. Close to the entrance gate of the base, two soldiers laid on the ground, their weapons next to them, one of the men still clutching the gun with blood-stained fingers; it was obvious that it had been of no use to him, his torn out throat showing that whatever had attacked them had had the upper hand despite the guns and the bullets they had fired.

Several of the buildings had been burned down, the fires by now died out, leaving only the blackened and charred remains behind; and on the paths between those buildings, the bodies of soldiers were strewn, with single body parts lying here and there, making it clear how helpless the soldiers had been against the creatures.

"They got overrun", Willow finally brought out, her voice trembling, "whatever they did here, it got out of control and then the monsters overran them… They never had a chance."

"What the Hell were they doing?" Pat mumbled, once more fighting against the almost overwhelmingly strong urge to light up a cigarette, not wanting to imagine what she might attract with the smell, raising an eyebrow when both Jessup and Danes shrugged in perfect unison.

"Are you sure you don't know anything about this?" she demanded to know, giving them a strict look, sighing when they briefly looked at each other, then down on their feet. "Look", she went on after a moment of finding the right words, "we don't want to play the blame game here, what's done has been done and now we have to figure out how to end it. This will be easier though if you tell us whatever you know."

"We just heard talk", Jessup finally mumbled, "you know, gossip… The scientists who were working on it all shut up as tight as clams when it came to that, so I don't know if any what I heard about the project is true…"

"Project", Willow echoed, "what project?"

"It's called the Arrowhead Project", Danes explained, "but, as Steve here just said, we don't know much about it… There was so much talk and gossip, at first stuff about opening gates to other dimensions and then it was about finding alternative energy sources and then again it was about building a new super-tank…"

"I think the first option was the correct one", Pat dryly stated, gesturing at all the carnage around, "they obviously did open some kind of gate, but they didn't keep in mind that something might come through. Idiots, tampering with things they don't understand…"

Before this could turn into a discussion about how idiotic exactly that project had been, the redhead spoke up again, now looking around nervously again as she asked herself if all the monsters had left after slaughtering everyone there – or if some had stayed behind and had made themselves comfortable, now just waiting for them to walk in unsuspecting. "Do you know where those scientists were working?"

"Underground", Danes gave back, "but I don't think we can get in there, you need a special key card and everything…"

"The monsters could get out, so we can get in", Pat gave back confidently; then, she grasped Willow's hand again, sensing how much all the death was affecting her, and slowly moved past the dead men on the ground, prompting Jessup and Danes to do the same, the two men picking up the guns before moving through the open gate as well. Giving her best to ignore the dead people and various body parts on the ground, Willow kept her gaze fixed on the biggest building of the base, straight ahead; she didn't know if this was where they were supposed to go, but since Jessup and Danes didn't say anything, she figured it was the building where the scientists had been working on their unfortunate experiments.

"You okay?" Pat whispered to her, giving her hand yet another reassuring squeeze; giving her best to not let her dismay about the situation show, Willow nodded, almost having to force herself to look at her partner though, the weak smile she gave her showing that she wasn't dealing with this as well as she was trying to make her believe.

"Try not to look at them", the demon mumbled, "I know that doesn't help much, but at least a little…"

"Yes", Willow nodded, then focused on the building up ahead again, trying to calculate how many more steps she'd have to take until she'd reach it; the shockingly loud bang that suddenly came from her left made her jump, then something which felt like a sledgehammer hit her left arm, followed by intense heat which spread all the way up and down her arm, along with an awful pain she never had felt before.

Crying out as the force of whatever it had been that had hit her drove her sideways, she stumbled against her partner; while she steadied her with one arm, Pat shouted at Jessup and Danes to find cover, then tightened her grip on the witch and hurried to the sad remains of one of the buildings lining the base's main road, dropping down with the redhead behind part of the burned down wall.

"What…" Willow croaked, then fell silent as the world started to blur around her; she briefly squeezed her eyes shut, a whimper escaping her through clenched teeth at the pain which was still pulsing and throbbing in her arm.

"Hey", Pat's voice reached her ears, "don't black out on me now, look at me, come on, Sweetie…" Even though it felt as if each eyelid weighed a ton, Willow forced her eyes open, finding herself face to face with the clearly worried demon, the taller woman's eye flickering back and forth between her face and whatever it was that had happened to her arm.

"What happened…?" she finally croaked out, flinching when the awfully loud bang came again, followed by hysterical laughter; the flinch only increased the pain, and she grit her teeth again, biting back her tears.

"Some lunatic is hiding somewhere over there and shot at us", Pat told her, ducking her head when another shot came, "he got you, but it doesn't seem too bad…"

"I'm shot?" Willow squeaked, momentarily feeling like fainting again; nodding, the demon grimaced as she took a closer look at her arm, making the witch cry out in pain again despite how tender she tried to be when she took careful hold of her to get a closer look.

"The bullet went all the way through", she finally mumbled, sounding relieved, "this will hurt, but we've got to stop the bleeding… Try to stay with me, okay?"

"It hurts a lot now already", Willow groaned, earning a sympathetic and worried look from her partner; then, Pat hurriedly tore off part of her shirt, mumbling soothing words when she pressed the cloth on the entrance and exit wounds and earned a pained cry from her lover.

"I've been shot", the redhead finally pressed out, looking at her girlfriend again, her eyes now full of disbelief, "I've never been shot before…"

"Not much fun, I know", Pat mumbled, briefly peeking over the wall, then quickly pulling back down when yet another shot came, hitting the stone a few centimetres above her head, tiny pieces of mortar and dust raining down on the couple.

"Crazy asshole", the demon cursed, running one hand through her hair to remove the dust, a lopsided smirk curling her lips when Willow muttered "Language", getting over the shock of taking a bullet surprisingly fast.

"Are you alright over there?" Jessup called out moments later, his unexpected cry making the witch flinch again and prompting her to groan again in pain moments later; still pressing the by now soaked piece of cloth on the wounds to stop the bleeding, Pat grasped Willow's hand with her free one, taking the time to mumble some comforting words to her before she answered the soldier, not having an idea that by now, he had been close to freaking out, sure that both of them had been shot when no reply had come immediately, her voice thus making him jump. "Willow's been hit in the arm, I think it's just a flesh wound but it's bleeding badly! What about you?"

"We're fine", Danes called back, ducking his head as low as he could when another shot came, "just stay where you are, we'll try to handle that one!"

"Alright", Pat replied, then focused on Willow again, the redhead's pale face and the sweat which was slowly rolling down her cheeks making her heart ache. "Hang in there", she mumbled, moving her free hand to caress her cheek tenderly, "once our two soldier boys took care of that guy, we'll find the infirmary and take proper care of you…"

"I hope they have good painkillers", Willow groaned, once more fighting to stay conscious as the world started to blur around her again, "I never knew this would hurt so bad… in the movies, they just keep going…"

"That's why they're movies and not the real life", the demon gave back, still giving her best to sound soothing, "but I'm sure we'll find some proper painkillers in the infirmary, then it'll all be better. Just try to stay with here with me, alright? Don't black out on me."

"I'm trying", Willow gave back, moaning again in pain afterwards; in response, the demon removed the backpack from her back as fast as she could without letting go of the cloth she was still pressing on her girlfriend's arm, then opened it and got out one of the mineral water bottles, unscrewing the lid with the help of her teeth before she held the bottle to her partner's lips and watched how she took a few sips.

"Better?" she then asked, smiling when the witch nodded weakly; then, a strangled cry came from the direction of which the shots had been fired, followed by Jessup's voice calling out to them once more. "Ok we got him, we actually know him! He's all knocked out, you can come back out!"

"I don't think I can walk", Willow meekly told her partner in reply, "my legs feel all weird…"

"You're in shock", Pat helpfully let her know, "wait… This might hurt again…" Quickly, she knotted the piece of cloth around her arm, as tight as she dared to, giving the redhead a sympathetic look when she groaned in pain again; then, she carefully picked her up on her arms, leaving the backpack where it was for now, the shocked faces of Jessup and Danes greeting her when she came out of their cover.

"We gotta take her to the infirmary", she stated without wasting any time, "it's still bleeding and she's in a lot of pain."

"Um, the infirmary's over there", Jessup let her know, gesturing at one of the few thankfully intact buildings, "but… you do know that we can't just stitch up the holes and be done with it, right?"

"I'm aware of that, thanks", Pat gave back, rolling her good eye, "but we at least can bandage her up until we can get her to a proper doctor, and get her some painkillers."

"Follow me then", Danes decided after a moment, "Steve, you tie that guy up properly so he doesn't try to blast us away again, alright?"

"Alright", Jessup agreed, making his comrade smile at him; he smiled back, then started looking for something he could tie the crazed soldier up with while the rest of the group headed for the infirmary, eager to find everything they needed to give Willow at least a little bit of help.


	19. Chapter 19

A short time later, Willow laid on one of the beds in the infirmary's patient room, on her side so there wouldn't be any pressure on her wounded arm; Pat was at her bedside, caressing her hair and talking to her to keep her awake, not wanting her to black out after she had bled quite badly from the shot wound.

Initially, the demon had wanted to help Danes with finding everything they'd need to take care of her partner, then had decided that it'd be smarter to stay with her; clearly, Willow was thankful about that, smiling weakly at the tender, comforting touch of her partner and at the demon's efforts to keep her awake.

"I'll never go on holidays with you again", the black haired woman now told her, smiling slightly to show that she wasn't fully serious, "at least in Sunnydale, we don't have crazy army scientists creating mist with monsters inside it and there, you don't end up getting shot."

"Well, in Sunnydale, we had a crazy army scientist who created Adam, but you weren't there back then", Willow pointed out, glad that lying down had minimized the danger of fainting and she could talk properly to her partner, "but you're right about the being shot at part… I've never been shot before."

"Um, excuse me?" Danes butted in before Pat could reply anything to that, "Pat? Do you have a moment? The cabinet with the strong stuff is locked and as far as I know, you're quite strong so…"

"Sure", the demon gave back, taking the time to tenderly kiss her girlfriend and tell her that she'd be right back before she got up from her seat and moved out of the room with the soldier, into the doctor's office where Danes pointed her to the cabinet in which the "strong stuff" was kept.

"I couldn't find the key", he explained while Pat examined the lock and the cabinet door's handle, "I didn't want to disturb you in there, but when I didn't find it…"

"No problem", the demon gave back, then took firm hold of the handle and gave one powerful pull; the wood around the lock splintered, and the door was opened, the black haired woman ignoring the way Danes' jaw tried to meet his breastbone while she quickly looked over the packages and small orange tubes of medicines, finally spotting a pack of rather strong painkillers and grabbing it.

"I didn't think you'd be _that_ strong", Danes finally regained his ability to speak, looking at her wide-eyed; shrugging, she told him to get some water before she returned to her partner, holding the pack of painkillers up triumphantly.

"Got 'em" she unnecessarily explained, "and I think I shocked Danes."

"Yes you did", the soldier accused from behind her, bringing the water she had asked for in a paper cup, "I knew you're strong, but that was insane."

"What did you do?" Willow wanted to know while Pat helped her to sit up, making sure to keep her hands away from her hurt arm, "pick that cabinet up and break it over your knee?"

"No, of course not", the demon gave back, shaking her head, "I just… kinda ripped the door open."

"Damn impressive, I have to say", Danes muttered, handing Willow the water while Pat removed one of the pills from the package, but before she could give it to the witch, she spoke up, suddenly sounding worried. "Wait, they won't make me woozy, right? What if I have to do some magic to close whatever they opened and then I can't because I'm woozy?"

"I don't know if they'll make you woozy", Pat gave back, frowning while she looked at the package, "I'm not a doctor. It doesn't say anything about that here…"

"I'll take them later then", Willow decided, to her girlfriend's obvious dismay, "after we took care of… whatever those scientists did."

"At least take half of one", the demon tried to convince her otherwise in reply, "I've been shot before, I know how much it hurts, what if it messes up your concentration or something?"

"Being woozy from the painkillers will mess it up for sure", the redhead argued in reply, to the taller woman's obvious dismay not willing to give in, "and it doesn't even hurt that much anymore, I'll be okay…"

"You're a horrible liar, that's what you are", Pat sighed out, tucking the pack of painkillers into the pocket of her jacket, "but I know that you're also horribly stubborn, so fine. At least let me bandage you up a bit though, it's still bleeding a bit."

Nodding, Willow watched how Pat left the room again, then returned a short time later with one of the trays on which the doctor placed his instruments; momentarily, the witch felt nauseous at the sight of the sharp scalpels and other, not exactly trust-inspiring objects, the only things which didn't look dangerous being a roll of bandage and a pack of mull, relief flooding her again when her partner picked up a pair of scissors and explained that she'd have to cut the sleeve away.

"I hope the fabric didn't get stuck to the wounds by now", she mumbled to herself as she started doing so, only to grimace when she saw that exactly this had happened; she gave her girlfriend an apologetic look, then removed the cloth she had wrapped around her arm and the sleeve of her shirt as careful as she could, not managing to do so without bringing up fresh pain in the bullet wounds.

"Sorry", she mumbled as soon as she had removed all the fabric which had to get out of the way, "I tried…"

"I know", Willow gave back through grit teeth; this earned her another apologetic glance, then tore the package of mull open and called for Danes to help, the soldier holding the two pieces she'd removed from the pack in place while he threw impatient glances at the door again and again.

"What is taking Steve so long?" he finally asked, managing to sound annoyed and worried at the same time; without taking her gaze away from the task at hand, Pat shrugged, carefully wrapping the bandage around her lover's arm, making sure to wrap it tight enough so it'd hopefully quench the trickle of blood that still was seeping from the holes.

"That should do", she finally sighed, throwing her partner a worried look – during the procedure, Willow had gotten even paler than she already had been, and again was breathing with deep concentration, making the demon wonder if she was close to passing out.

"She's not gonna faint now is she?" Danes demanded to know, having noticed it as well; this time, the black haired woman didn't even bother to shrug, not even looking at him for a second while she took the cup of water the soldier had brought earlier and held it to her partner's lips, a bit relieved when immediately, she started to drink.

"Ew", the witch complained after taking a few sips, "that's lukewarm. Gross."

"Sorry", Danes apologized, "seems the cooling system died or something when… whatever it was that happened, happened." The sound of a door opening behind them made them all over look over, the demon automatically tensing as she almost anticipated the man who had shot at them to storm in and open fire again; to her relief, it was Jessup though, his face pale as well, his hands trembling just enough to let Pat notice.

"Did you tie the guy up?" Danes demanded to know, either not noticing the dismayed state of his companion or deciding to ignore it; to everyone's relief, the soldier nodded, then sat down on the nearest empty bed, his voice shaking when he replied. "I did, and locked him up in one of the few still intact buildings… He woke up just after I'd tied him up though and this time, he recognized me…"

"So he didn't shoot you, too. Good", Pat dryly commented, raising an eyebrow at the look Jessup gave her afterwards, the anger in his eyes making her wonder if he'd be the next to snap and attack them.

"No, he didn't", the soldier now spat, "but you have no idea what he saw. I'd be just as fucked up as he is, if I'd been in his place. He was standing guard at the entrance to the lab when it happened…"

"Too bad for him", Pat gave back, clearly not all too sympathetic, "that still doesn't explain why he shot at _us_. He must have seen that you're two of his buddies."

"He wasn't exactly coherent enough to explain that", Jessup sighed, then dropped the topic by asking Willow how she was feeling, the witch shrugging in reply, a motion she immediately regretted though since it sent fresh pain through her arm.

"I'll be okay", she told the soldier, giving her best to hide how much it actually hurt, "now take us to that lab so we can take care of whatever those scientists opened there…"

Nodding, Jessup got up from his seat again; for a moment, Pat considered bringing up the painkillers once more, then decided against it, knowing well by now how stubborn her partner could be, thus just helping her to her feet with a barely held-back sigh.

Looking up at her, Willow gave her a weak smile which turned into a grateful one when the taller woman supported her by putting one arm around her waist; telling herself that she had to do this, that she could do this and that she could worry about her arm afterwards, she then left the infirmary together with her partner and the two soldiers, giving her best to will the pain away as she thought of the magic she soon would have to perform.

Author's Note: Some of you may wonder why Willow doesn't do the spell to borrow Pat's healing, which is easily explained – once she does the spell, any healing the foul-mouthed demon might have done in the last twenty-four to forty-eight hours is undone again, so she'd end up with a stabbed tummy and leg, which they both want to avoid ;) also, my apologies for this chapter being quite short, but it would have gotten too long, had I added more of the next part... :/ I hope you enjoyed anyway :)


	20. Chapter 20

Only five minutes later, the four had stopped dead in their tracks, the two soldiers gulping audibly while Willow and Pat, having better training when it came to encountering supernatural creatures, managed to keep quiet; still they both stared as well, unable to take their eyes off the sight in front of them.

The building beneath which the underground laboratory was located was one of the few which hadn't been burned down during the catastrophe that had happened here; this also meant though that it was one of the few where the monsters which had remained here had been able to find shelter, and at least one of them had done exactly that. After all the disfigured creatures they had encountered so far, both the witch and the demon had been sure that nothing would be able to shock them anymore; they had to admit though that they both were quite stunned now, mostly by the sheer size of the thing in front of them, the couple barely daring to breathe as they kept staring at it, trying to figure out how to get past it without gaining its attention.

Even though it, just like the dog-creatures in the town, had no eyes, it looked as if it was sleeping; its massive, long body was curled up close behind the front door of the large building, making it hard to estimate how big it really was, but from what they could see, they all figured that it had to be long enough to span the whole length of the large room, its massive head almost reaching Pat's chest.

"That's the biggest snake I have ever seen", Jessup whispered; none of them was sure if it really could be described as a snake, with the wrinkly skin on which patches of fur grew here and there, but they all decided that it was close enough, Danes nodding numbly, unable to take his eyes away from the thing.

"We have to get past it", Willow now whispered, making them all look at her, "maybe if we're really quiet, it won't wake up…"

"Let's hope it won't wake up", Danes pressed out, then took in a deep breath before he slowly started moving; after a second, Jessup did the same, the two soldiers keeping their eyes on the ground so they wouldn't step on anything or kick something which might create unwanted noise.

"I can carry you, if you want", the demon offered her partner instead of starting to move as well, "in case you're not sure your legs will work…"

"I'll be fine", the redhead gave back after thinking about this for a moment; after a sceptic look, Pat nodded and let her go first, following her as closely as she could without risking to hinder her, her gaze moving back and forth between the ground and the woman in front of her, ready to grab her the moment she'd just suspect that her legs would give in. The monstrous thing next to them shifted slightly in its slumber and let out a low grumbling noise, making them all freeze on the spot; they stood like that for almost a full minute, then Danes moved on, sweat forming on his brow and trailing down to his cheeks, the young man blinking furiously when one of the salty drops got into his eye.

"Shit", Jessup whispered behind him, "I think I gotta sneeze…!"

"No you don't", Willow hissed, sounding so strict that she nearly made him flinch; in the next second, he felt her touch the back of his neck, and then, the urge to sneeze was gone, briefly making him wonder what she had done – before he shrugged it off, telling himself that it didn't matter as long as he wouldn't do it and maybe wake that thing up. In front of him, Danes moved on carefully, wiping at one eye and mumbling curses under his breath; despite his impaired sight, he made it to the door at the other end of the room without stumbling over anything or kicking anything, relief flooding him when he placed his hand on the cool metal of the doorknob.

Carefully and slowly, he began to turn it, not wanting to make more noise than necessary; still the latch clicked awfully loud as it moved back, and a second later, he heard a massive weight shift behind him, his heart suddenly hammering up to his throat while he slowly looked over his shoulder. A thin, high noise which should have been a scream reached his ears, and it took him another moment to realize that it was coming from him; then Jessup was shouting at him to open the door, open the goddamned door, ignoring it when the witch behind him hissed at him to keep his voice down, forgetting that the thing had no eyes and thus had to use hearing and smells to locate them.

With a disturbingly loud grumbling sound coming from somewhere inside its long body, the monstrous snake reared its body until the massive head nearly touched the ceiling, its body uncoiling and allowing them to see how long it really was; then, it opened its mouth, and they just had a second to realize that it was full of sharp teeth and glowing embers, then a gust of fire erupted from it, the two soldiers dropping to the ground with hoarse cries while, without even thinking about it, the demon shot forward and tackled her partner, throwing her to the ground and shielding her from the flames.

Even after the flames had stopped spewing from the monster's mouth, the crackling sound of burning fire remained, caused by the door and several of the tables and chairs in the room which had been set aflame; after a quick look to make sure that Willow was okay, Pat came to her feet and rushed to the burning door, kicking it open as harshly as she could, not even turning around when the snake spewed another gust of flames at her.

"Come on, move, move!" she then hissed, making Jessup come to all fours and start crawling towards the door; impatiently, she shoved him through it the moment he was close enough so she could grab him, then did the same with Danes, snapping at them to keep moving and that they had to get out of the narrow hallway behind the door – there wasn't enough room for the snake to follow them through, but if it'd spit fire into that hallway, they'd end up burned to a crisp.

With her heart beating up to her throat, she realized that Willow had been trying to come to her feet, but was failing to do so, fresh blood soaking the bandage on her arm; as fast as she could, Pat hurried over to her, picking her up on her arms, giving her best to ignore the grumble the snake let out again while she hurried through the still burning door, Jessup and Danes waving at her hectically from the other end of the hallway, standing in the doorway of the door there, watching with wide, scared eyes how she started to run towards them.

Behind her, the snake lowered its head, wasting a few precious moments by trying to get through the much too narrow doorway; then, it obviously realized that it was too big, since it opened its mouth again, another gust of flame spewing from it moments later. Even though she had been sure that she'd already been running as fast as possible, Pat realized that she could go even faster when she heard the crackle of the fire behind her; tightening her grip on Willow, she sped up even more when she felt the heat of the fire at her back, then covered the last few meters between the doorway and herself with a daring jump, somehow managing to turn in the air so she'd hit the ground and thus shielded Willow from the impact, Jessup slamming the door shut the moment they both were through, the flames hitting the wood and setting it on fire as well, but not washing into the room.

"I think you've gained weight", the demon told her girlfriend as soon as she could breathe in enough air to talk again, still finding it hard to get up from the floor; for a few moments, Willow just stared at her, then started giggling hysterically, only to fall silent in shock when Danes stepped up to Jessup and punched him, hard enough to send him to the ground.

"You goddamned idiot!" the soldier shouted at his companion, "why did you start yelling?! It couldn't see us, numbskull, if you hadn't made so much noise it wouldn't even have noticed us I bet! You stupid fuck!"

"I'm sorry!" Jessup cried out, raising his hands to shield himself from another blow, "I was freaked out!"

"Cut it out!" Willow snapped, the sharp sound of her voice surprising Danes enough to make him freeze in mid-air, his fist raised for another punch, "the last thing we need now is that we turn on each other! Let's get out of here before that door burns down and the thing decides it wants some barbecue, after all."

"Wise words", Pat commented, coming to her feet again; ignoring the fact that she still felt quite breathless, she helped Willow to her feet, mumbling an apology to her while she gestured at the crimson stains on the bandage.

"Oh please, don't apologize", the redhead shrugged it off, "it was a choice between letting me get burned and make that stupid bullet wound bleed again, I think the second option is much more pleasant, as odd as that may sound."

"Agreed", the demon smirked, then gave Danes and Jessup an impatient look; still, Danes took the time to mumble an apology to his comrade for hitting him, the other soldier accepting it graciously before they started walking again, leading them through yet another door and down another hallway until they finally reached the stairway which would take them to the underground lab.

* * *

Already at the bottom of said stairs, it became clear that Pat had been right when she hadn't been all too worried about opening the door to the lab, despite the high security; it wasn't only opened, but had been torn off the hinges and laid in the hallway, a dead man in a white lab coat lying on the cold steel, the dents in the metal and the spatters of blood showing with how much force he had been thrown against it.

"Let us go in first", Danes suggested once he had gotten over the shock the horrible sight had given him, something which happened much faster now that he had ran into so many dead bodies already, "we got the guns."

To his relief, both Willow and Pat nodded at that, the demon wisely holding back a comment about how those guns wouldn't be of much use in case another monster as big as the snake upstairs was waiting for them; with a deep breath, Danes stepped into the lab, closely followed by Jessup, the two men looking left and right as they tried to see any threat before it might notice them.

When none of them could spot anything, they nodded at the couple, signalling that it was okay to follow; the moment they took the first step though, they both realized that they had forgotten to check the ceiling, and the second they both looked up, one of the spiders Pat already knew from the pharmacy lowered itself on Jessup's face, a shriek of terror and fear escaping him when he felt the hairy legs on his cheeks and throat, almost caressing him.

"Get it off!" he howled, blindly flailing the gun around; then, with a clearly audible noise, the spider shot out a string of cobweb, the soldier's shrieks increasing when it landed on his cheek and started to eat into his flesh.

"Oh God", Danes brought out, just standing there and staring; moments later, he got thrown against the wall behind him as Jessup's finger tightened on the trigger in pure reflex and a salvo of shots erupted from the gun, hitting him in chest and stomach, blood spattering the ground and the wall as he let out a chocked gurgle.

Shocked into speechlessness, all Willow could do was stare, not believing her eyes; by now, Jessup's screams had died down to wet gurgles as the spider had wrapped several more strings of cobweb around his face, his finger finally loosening again as he slumped down, letting out one last helpless gurgling sound, his feet twitching on the ground for a few more moments before he laid still. The sight of the dead soldier and the spider scurrying down his body, leaving even more cobweb as it made its way to his feet, was what finally tore the demon out of her paralyzed state; with a low curse, she moved forward, then kicked the spider as hard as she could, a look of grim satisfaction on her face when it flew off the dead man's body and splattered against the wall, close to the just as dead Danes.

"Goddammit", Pat then brought out, the tremble in her voice stunning her girlfriend almost as much as the sight of the spider killing Jessup and Jessup in reaction killing Danes had – after all, the taller woman so far had been the one to keep a more or less clear head, except for a burst of aggression or two, but during all the time since this ordeal had started, she hadn't sounded like this for a single a second. Not sure what she could say to calm her down, all Willow could think of was stepping closer to her and placing a reassuring hand on her arm; to her relief, the black haired woman looked at her after a moment, nodding when the witch asked her if she was okay, then dug out her cigarettes and lit one of them up, clearly not caring anymore if any monsters would smell the smoke and would come after them.

"Let's go and find whatever is causing all of this", she stated after taking a few deep drags from it, "it's time we put an end to it."

Nodding, Willow grasped her free hand in reply, once more giving her best to hide her pain since she didn't want to upset her partner even more; the couple exchanged another look, quietly reassuring each other that things would be okay, then kept moving on, deeper into the lab and closer to the reason for all the horror and mayhem they had been facing during the last two days.


	21. Chapter 21

"They really had no idea what they were toying around with", Willow whispered just a few minutes later, with shock and awe in her voice; next to her, Pat could merely nod, once more rendered speechless by the sight in front of her.

Neither the witch nor her had the slightest idea what exactly the scientists had been trying to accomplish with their works down here; they both briefly wondered if any of the men and women in the white lab coats lying on the ground all around them had been expecting this, then decided against it – after all, no one in their right mind would have agreed to do it if the outcome they now were facing had been predictable.

Right above the strange looking machine in the middle of the lab's large main room, something which looked like a tear had formed, producing soft crackling noises every now and then; on the other side of said tear, all they could see was darkness, but it wasn't hard to imagine all those monster spewing from it, overrunning the scientists and causing all the carnage and death around them.

"No idea at all", the demon finally found herself able to talk again, clearing her throat before she gave her partner a questioning look. "Think you can close it…?"

"Probably", Willow gave back after a moment of studying the tear in their reality and the gate it thus opened to another, much more awful one, "just give me a minute so I can focus…"

Nodding, the taller woman gave her best to stand still and to keep herself from fidgeting around as she waited for the witch to get done with that; finally, after what had felt much longer than just a minute, the redhead nodded, taking in a deep breath while she moved a bit closer to the tear, eying it cautiously, expecting something horrible to pop out of it and try to eat her any second.

What she hadn't told her girlfriend when she had said that she thought she could do it was that she'd have to tap into the darkness inside her again to accomplish the task; the moment she had laid eyes on the tear and had felt how much power would be needed to close it, she had known, and even though she despised the thought of using those dark powers, she knew that there was no other way.

For a moment, she even considered to keep this from her partner, then realized that this wouldn't only be stupid, but also a breach of the trust and the bond between them; thus, she took in another deep breath, then looked at the taller woman again, surprised at how steady her own voice sounded when she spoke up again. "I can do it, but… I'll have to use those powers I gained during my roaring rampage of revenge. I don't want to, believe me, but I don't see how else I can do it… but I'm not sure if I'll be able to stop once I started that, so…"

"It'll be okay", the demon gave back, her voice surprisingly calm as well, "you're strong. I know how strong you are, and you know it, too, you'll be able to handle it just fine."

"You know what you'll have to do in case I don't, right?" Willow wanted to know in reply, touched by the trust her girlfriend had in her; to her relief, the taller woman just nodded, without even bothering to argue, giving her hand another reassuring squeeze afterwards, her gaze never leaving her girlfriend's.

"You better take a few steps back", the witch added after they just had looked at each other for a while; nodding again, Pat let go of her hand and did just that, throwing her cigarette on the ground and stepping on it to put it out while Willow focused on the tear again, taking in yet another deep breath before she closed her eyes.

Even though she hardly ever used those dark powers contained within her, thanks to the training she had undergone with the coven in England years ago, it was easy to tap into them, the power surging through her seconds after she had focused on it; she almost could feel the air around her crackle as the dark magic flooded through her, and when her eyes practically flew open seconds later, they were as black as the darkest night, a light breeze coming up around her and making her clothes and hair flutter. A small, but malicious smirk formed on her face while the wind increased, turning into a gale, aided by the fact that, even though the room was big, it wasn't big enough to let the miniature storm spread; Willow noticed nothing of it though, fully focused on the tear in front of her and the darkness which was trying to take her over as she used its strength to close said tear, not even noticing how her feet left the ground as the mere power surrounding her was enough to lift her into the air.

With her smirk widening slightly, she raised her hands, the wind all around her increasing, howling through the room; behind her, Pat realized to her astonishment that the wind was strong enough by now to actually push her backwards, her feet sliding over the ground for a few seconds until she regained her senses enough to grab the nearest piece of scientific equipment, only to realize that this didn't do much good, since the blink of an eye later, said equipment started sliding over the floor as well, forced backwards by the force of the storm.

Even though all her instincts were screaming to let go and try to get to her partner, the demon let herself be pushed backwards until she reached the door leading from the small room where Jessup and Danes had been killed to the lab's main area; the moment she was close enough, she grabbed the doorframe, her good eye widening in astonishment when her feet actually left the ground for a few seconds before she could regain enough control to force them back down, crouching against the wall and holding on to the doorframe for dear life.

Despite the fact that the raging wind made her eye tear up and made it hard for her to keep it open, she forced herself to keep watching her girlfriend; by now, Willow had risen almost a full meter above the floor, her hands still raised, nearly touching the ceiling, the wind circling around her, tearing at her clothes and her hair, not succeeding in moving her the tiniest bit though; if the witch was talking or intonating some sort of spell or chant, the demon couldn't hear it over the roaring of the storm, said storm now growing even stronger, to her great dismay.

Seconds later, only her fast reaction saved her from a concussion or maybe even a bashed in skull as a rather large metal table flew towards her; she only had a split second to decide how to avoid it, successfully doing so by letting go of the doorframe and ending up on the ground, the table smashing into the spot where she had been the blink of an eye later, the wind carrying it on afterwards, sending it bouncing over the ground and against the walls.

Cursing, even though she couldn't even hear herself over the howling of the wind and the sounds of various bits and pieces of lab equipment hitting the walls above her, Pat clung to the doorframe again with both hands before the storm could force her even further backwards; keeping as close to the floor as possible, since the wind wasn't quite as strong there, she started to fight her way closer to her partner again, a yelp escaping her when something came flying at her from her blind side and hit her right in the head, briefly making her see stars.

If Willow was noticing any of this, it didn't distract her from her task; she still was floating in the air, staring at the tear the scientists had so foolishly created, her hands now back at her sides, the crackling sounds the tear had been making before increasing as it slowly started to become smaller.

Glad that at least, the magic seemed to do what it was supposed to, the demon kept moving over the ground, almost pressed flatly to the cold tiles; this made her move much slower than she would have liked, but she knew that if she'd even get up on all fours, the wind would just force her backwards again. Moments later, she let out a yelp as she saw some other piece of scientific equipment slide over the floor and towards her; as fast as she could, she pulled her head between her shoulders and covered it with both hands, still hearing the angels sing when the thing smacked her, then it got carried on by the storm and vanished in the hallway behind her.

The moment she lifted her head again, blood trickled into her good eye, forcing her to blink furiously while she kept moving forward as fast as it was possible; after just a few meters though, the storm increased even more, forcing her to put all her strength into keeping herself in place, the black haired woman briefly and crazily thinking to herself that, if this would have been a cartoon, she'd end up getting blown away anyway and her fingers would leave deep scratches in the tiled floor.

Squinting against the blood which still was running into her eye, she looked up at the tear, relieved when she saw that it still was closing; and finally, after a few more minutes, it vanished completely, the wind slowly dying down while Willow returned to the ground, the storm stopping fully the moment her feet touched the ground. Without missing a beat, the witch reached up and moved her hand over the bandage on her arm with a fluent motion; before Pat could ask her though what she was doing, she turned around, the demon flinching visibly when she saw that the darkness still was in the redhead's eyes.

"Willow", she brought out, coming to her feet hurriedly, "you did it, it closed, the work those powers had to do is done…"

"I know", the witch replied, "but to be honest, I don't want to let go of it again… Push it back to that place where it was before, just sitting there unused… You don't know how good it feels to have such power."

"No, I don't", Pat gave back, her mind racing as she tried to find the right words to snap her partner out of this, "I know my power is nothing compared to yours…"

Blinking again as more blood ran into her eye, she reached up with one hand to wipe it off; frowning slightly, Willow took a step closer to her, to the demon's surprise sounding just the tiniest bit surprised when she spoke up again. "You're bleeding…"

"Yeah, something hit me in the head", Pat gave back, forcing herself to not flinch back when the witch reached up and moved her fingers over the small cut, her heart nearly missing a beat when she felt the wound close moments later.

"There", the redhead said, pulling her hand back, "now it's all…" She staggered as the darkness vanished from her eyes and they returned to their natural green colour; she still had a moment to see how her girlfriend started moving, then her legs gave in beneath her and the world turned black around her as her consciousness faded away.


	22. Chapter 22

It only took a few minutes until Willow came around again, feeling drained and tired now that the dark powers she had used to close the tear had been forced to the back of her mind again, where they were under control; to her surprise, she didn't lie on the hard, cold floor as she had imagined she would when she had woken up, but on something soft, identifying it as her girlfriends legs a moment later.

"There you are again", the demon stated the obvious, caressing her hair tenderly, making her wonder if she had been doing this the whole time since she had blacked out, "feeling okay?"

"Bit tired", Willow mumbled in reply, knowing that this was an understatement; the smirk on her partner's face showed that Pat knew that just as well, but the black haired woman didn't contradict her, merely nodding in reply, her hand still moving over her hair.

"I guess we're in no hurry anymore", she let the witch know, "you closed the tear or rip or whatever it was, well, the monsters are probably still out there, but there won't come any new ones, so…"

"Good to know", Willow sighed, "because I don't think I can get up now… But at least my arm's not hurting anymore."

"I think you actually did something about that", Pat reminded her, raising an eyebrow as she wondered if her partner had forgotten that; curiously, Willow gestured at the bandage in reply, clearly having no idea anymore about what she had done after the tear had been closed, and her girlfriend hurried to remove it, the redhead's eyes widening briefly in surprise when she saw that the wounds were gone.

"You don't remember doing that?" Pat demanded to know, now sounding worried, her concern increasing when the witch shook her head, sounding curious when she replied. "No, not at all… I only remember closing that tear and coming back down to the ground, and then there's nothing. What did I do?"

"Well", Pat started helping her memories along, "you worried me for a moment because you said something about that power feeling so good and not wanting to let go of it again, then you noticed that I was bleeding – some stupid piece of lab equipment hit me in the head thanks to that storm that came up when you were doing your mojo there – and you healed it just like you healed yourself and then, your eyes went back to normal and you blacked out."

"Oh", Willow gave back, not all too smart, "so I nearly went evil again…?"

"Yeah, kinda", the demon shrugged, "but you snapped out of it after healing me, so I guess we don't need to worry. Maybe that healing was a too good thing to do and so, that dark power had to retreat again."

"Seems so", the redhead agreed after a moment, carefully trying to sit up afterwards; to her relief, she managed to do so without slumping back down, even though the word briefly started to spin around her again.

"You sure you don't want to keep lying down for another minute or two?" Pat asked, now sounding worried again; in the last second, Willow stopped herself from shaking her head, realizing that this only would make the room spin around her again, making herself comfortable against her girlfriend's upper body, smiling weakly when immediately, the demon put both arms around her.

"I just need a few more minutes", she let the taller woman know as soon as they both were comfortable, "then we can get up and leave… Oh, damn…"

At the last two words, her eyes widened, and she looked at her girlfriend in shock, her voice trembling just the tiniest bit when she went on, before giving Pat a chance to ask what was upsetting her.

"That snake thing", she explained, not able to keep the fear out of her voice, "it's still out there! How are we supposed to get past it?"

"Maybe it fell asleep again", the demon suggested, "in that case, we'll just have to be quiet and sneak past it."

"And what if it's still awake and hungry?" the redhead asked in reply, clearly not calmed down by her girlfriend's words, "it was so big, no offense Honey but I'm not sure you'd be able to fight it… And I'm all drained, I can't do any magic again for the next few hours…"

Before Pat could come up with another reply, one which hopefully would reassure her, the sound of gunfire suddenly came up somewhere else in the building; automatically, Willow snuggled up even closer to her, her eyes widening again, her heart performing a daring jump in her chest when she heard someone shout.

"Seems like the army arrived", Pat commented dryly, "or someone else with heavy guns. Let's hope they won't think that we need to be shot, too."

"Should we go and meet them?" Willow asked after a moment, not surprised when immediately, Pat shook her head – it hadn't seemed like an all too good idea to her, either, but still she had figured it couldn't hurt to ask.

"They won't expect anyone to be here, if they are just a tiny bit aware of what they are doing", the demon then pointed out, "so if we startle them, we just might end up getting shot after all. You just healed that shot wound, you don't need any new ones, right?"

"Right", the witch agreed, leaning her head against her girlfriend's shoulder again afterwards; it didn't take long until the gunshots stopped, giving them a minute to wonder if the ones holding the guns had won or if the monster they had been battling had gained the upper head, then footsteps approached them, the door opening moments later. Upon seeing them, the group of soldiers stopped dead in their tracks, clearly startled; then three of the five men hurried on without wasting another glance on the couple while the remaining two moved closer, not pointing their guns at them yet, but raising them slightly, obviously ready to aim at them the moment they'd give them the tiniest reason for it.

"Identify yourselves, you're trespassing", the taller of the two snapped; after all the excitement of the last two days and with the knowledge that it basically was the army's fault that all of it had happened, Pat clearly wasn't willing to let some random soldier talk to her that way though, her voice even sharper when she replied. "How about you show some manners? If it hadn't been for us, and our trespassing, the lovely gate your kooky scientists opened to another dimension full of hellish monsters would still be open, and you would have been eaten by now."

"You want to tell us that you closed it?" the smaller soldier replied, shrinking even further when his companion shot him a dirty look, clearly not happy about his words; rolling her good eye, the demon nodded, making sure to hold the taller man's gaze as she answered. "Yes, my partner here did, so I suggest you think again about how you talk to us, and to her in particular."

For a few moments, the soldiers both remained silent; then, the taller one gestured at the door leading outside, still sounding clipped when he spoke up again. "Come with us please, we will escort you off the premises. This area of the base is closed for civilians."

For a moment, Pat felt like giving him a snarky reply, then decided against it, realizing how lucky they were that obviously, the army would just let them go like that – after all, they just as well could have tried to lock them up so they wouldn't be able to tell anyone about what they had seen and done, but after a whole town had suffered the consequences of their actions, locking them up wouldn't do much good, with so many other witnesses around. Thus, she just nodded and came to her feet, helping Willow to do the same; as soon as she could be sure that her partner was able to stand, she put one arm around her waist to support her, then the soldiers turned without another word and walked off, the couple following them after a moment, both of them still glad that they could get out of this so easily.

* * *

"Everything you saw and heard in there is highly confidential", the smaller of the two men told the couple as soon as they had reached the base's main gate, "so let me suggest that you don't talk about anything of it."

"Don't want the rest of the world to find out what you did here, huh", Pat this time was unable to hold back a smart remark; the soldier just gave her an angry look, then told her once more to remain quiet about everything before he and his partner turned and hurried back to the main building, leaving the witch and the demon standing there.

"Charming lad", Pat commented, shaking her head; nodding, Willow watched them vanish inside the building, then looked up at her girlfriend, sounding slightly bewildered when she replied. "Indeed… But I guess we were lucky they just let us go like that. With the way that tall guy looked at us after finding us there, I thought they'd arrest us right on the spot and wouldn't let us go."

"I guess they would have done just that if they'd known it's just us who saw what they did", the demon shrugged, "but the whole town was affected, and they can hardly lock them all up, right?"

"Good point", Willow had to admit, "lucky us, then. Now, should we go and find David and the others?"

Nodding, Pat grasped her hand again, making her smile; together, the couple headed down the road which led back into town, not surprised to find more soldiers there, the men and women killing the monsters which still were roaming the streets with the help of their guns and flamethrowers.

"Finally they got things under control", the demon commented, "I wonder if they'd been able to end this if you hadn't closed that portal."

"I doubt it", Willow sighed, still dismayed about what those scientists had caused, "they're all just regular soldiers, they wouldn't have known what to do."

"You should get a medal, then", Pat told her, smirking slightly while she dug out her cigarettes, "you saved that town and maybe the whole world, who knows how far this would have spread."

"I'll write a letter to the president", Willow giggled, making her partner chuckle as well; they briefly stopped to exchange a short, but tender kiss, ignoring the soldiers who took a moment to watch them before they focused on killing the few remaining monsters again, then headed on, the witch groaning as she remembered how far they would have to walk to reach David's house.

"We should steal a car", she then sighed at the questioning look the taller woman gave her, "that's quite the walk we have ahead of us now."

"Aw", Pat showed some sympathies, "it's not that far, but after all that trouble, I'd prefer having a car as well. Stealing one is not a good idea though, I don't want to end up in prison after all."

"Yeah, that'd be the last straw to turn this holiday into a complete disaster", Willow giggled, "just imagine Buffy's face when she asks us what we did and we tell her that we fought monsters from a supernatural mist, closed a supernatural portal and then got arrested for stealing a car."

"Her face is gonna be hilarious", Pat smirked, "even if we don't have to tell her that we got arrested."

"I'm so gonna take a picture", Willow decided as she imagined the look which would appear on the Slayer's face when she heard about their holiday, "but now that this is over, let's hope the rest of our holiday will be much more peaceful."

"Oh yes", Pat grimaced, "I've had all the action I can take when I'm in holiday-mode."

"Yup", the redhead agreed at once, then pulled her partner to the side of the road as she heard a car approach; to her amazement, it stopped next to them moments later and Ollie looked out at them, smiling from ear to ear.

"You're fine!" he cried out, briefly making them both glad that Willow had used her magic to heal herself and her girlfriend, "awesome! Hop on in, I'll take you to David's place, he sent me to look for you."

Smiling happily about the fact that now, she wouldn't need to walk after all, Willow got into the passenger seat while the demon took the backseat; the moment they had pulled the doors close, Ollie stepped on the gas pedal again, turning the car around before he accelerated even more, driving back to the young man's house at the top of the speed limit.

"Is his wife okay?" the redhead asked as soon as she had put her seatbelt on, not sure mow much she could trust the bald man's driving ability, giving her girlfriend a strict look to make her do the same, smiling when she succeeded.

"Stephanie's fine", Ollie let them know, smiling happily again, "she locked herself up in the cellar when she saw the first monster through the window and stayed there until we came to the house. She was horribly dehydrated and hungry, but otherwise she's fine, David was taking care of her when I left to find you. Did you find anything at the base?"

"Yeah, those crazy army scientists opened a gate to another dimension or something", Pat filled him in, "Willow closed it, but before that, we nearly got eaten by a giant snake – and I mean giant, like ten meters long – and unfortunately, Danes and Jessup died during a nasty incident with a spider."

"Oh, poor guys", Ollie grimaced, his happy smile vanishing from his face, "they were both so young…"

Willow let out a vaguely agreeing noise, then nervously asked him if he could drive a bit slower; to her relief, he did so, keeping his gaze focused on the road and managing to drive in a speed which didn't make the redhead nervous until they arrived at David's house, the young man already waiting in front of it with his son, his wife and Norm, waving enthusiastically when he spotted the car, the happy smile on his face suddenly causing tremendous happiness well up within the witch and the demon, both of them all at once glad that, despite the unsettlingly high amount of people who had died, things had turned out more or less alright after all.


	23. Chapter 23

Author's Note: Yup, another one done... I hope you enjoyed the excitement which resulted from the unfortunate couple's try to take a few days off. ;) I had a lot of fun writing this, and it gave me an excuse to re-watch the movie, so I hope you had fun reading it, too. :D

* * *

"…and then I took the shovel and bam! whacked him a good one!" Norm enthusiastically let Stephanie know, the young woman listening to him with a slightly astonished expression on her face, the glass of water and the plate of food on the table in front of her forgotten; during the last hour, the small group had told her everything what had happened in the supermarket, not even leaving out the parts how Willow and Pat had healed Jamie and how the black haired woman had demoned out when Mrs Carmody had wanted to kill her girlfriend, despite the slight objections of both the witch and the demon, David simply overruling their protest by telling them that sooner or later, he'd have to tell his wife about them anyway and that she'd surely keep quiet about them.

"This sounds like something from a horror movie", Stephanie finally said, slightly dazed, after they had gotten done with their story; making big eyes, she looked at the other couple in the room, still sounding astonished when she went on. "You're really a witch and a demon?"

"Yes, we are", Willow reassured her, even though it felt weird to tell this to someone who was a perfectly normal person and hadn't had the slightest idea that such things really existed before all of this had happened, "but please don't ask me for any magic tricks, I'm all drained after closing that portal those stupid scientists opened."

"Can you show me something?" Stephanie asked Pat in reply, making the black haired woman chuckle – before she let one hand flame up, the young woman's eyes getting even bigger at the sight.

"Doesn't that hurt?" she then asked, her eyes full of wonder; with another chuckle, the demon shook her head, then let the flames vanish instead, not wanting to set something on fire accidentally.

"Wow", the young woman mumbled once the fire was gone again, "this is… You guys had so much action while I was hiding away in the cellar. Honestly, I'm glad I didn't go with you, David, I think I would have died from all the excitement."

"Well, it all worked out in the end, thankfully", David gave back, then gestured at the food and the water, "but now eat up, you need that after two days of sitting in that cellar without food and something to drink."

Nodding, the young woman picked up the fork again and started to eat; while she did so, her husband went to refill the drinks of his guests and Pat got up from her seat as well, letting the others know that she'd go outside for a smoke. It didn't surprise her that Norm decided to join her; together, they walked outside and stopped on the porch, sitting down there, the black haired woman handing her pack of cigarettes to the teenager after she had removed one of them for herself, not bothering with the lighter since Norm knew about her anyway, making him smile widely when she held her hand out to him after lighting up her cigarette and allowed him to do the same.

"Now I can tell people that I lit my cig up on the hand of a demon", he proudly stated after he had done so and Pat had made the flames vanish, only to yelp when she replied by giving him a light hit to the back of the head.

"No you won't", she then scolded, "no one's supposed to know about that, remember? We wouldn't have told you either if we could have avoided it."

"But it's so cool", Norm whined, letting out a sigh at the look Pat gave him in reply, sounding defeated when he spoke on. "Fine, I won't tell anyone…"

"Good boy", the demon smirked, then chuckled when Norm let out a huff and gave her an annoyed look; after a moment, he smiled as well, then made himself comfortable and just smoked in silence, once more realizing how happy he was that he had survived all of this and that soon, things would be okay again.

* * *

Several hours later, Willow and Pat had left David's home and had returned to their own house; Norm and Ollie had left for their homes as well, giving David and Stephanie some privacy and time to enjoy the fact that all of them had survived the ordeal.

"I hope Myron isn't the only mechanic in town", Pat commented as they arrived at the house and she saw the damaged car, remembering that they still had to get that fixed, "I doubt he'll be willing to repair that after everything that happened."

"I'm sure we'll find someone who'll do it", Willow reassured her, "but I don't want to worry about that now, all I wanna do is having a nice, long, hot shower and then sleep in a real, soft bed."

"Very good ideas", the demon agreed, "and while you have that shower, I'll put some cardboard in front of that broken window so we can actually sleep in the bedroom."

"Aw", Willow let out in reply, prompting her partner to give her a questioning look, a smirk appearing on her face when she went on and a well-known glint appeared in her girlfriend's good eye. "I was hoping you'd join me for that shower, but if you'd prefer to repair the window…"

"That can wait", the demon decided at once, not really surprising her partner; smirking, she grasped the taller woman's hand and made her way to the bathroom with her, the window and the fact that it needed to be fixed fully forgotten just a few minutes later.

* * *

In the next morning, Willow was the first one to wake up, as usual; thanks to the cardboard in front of the window, the room was almost fully dark, only a bit of light getting in through the slits between the cardboard and the window frame. After spending the previous night sleeping on a thin seat cushion and in such a tense atmosphere, sleeping in a proper bed had been astonishingly good; momentarily, Willow wondered if it would have felt even better if they'd been forced to stay in that supermarket for longer, then shrugged it off and rolled over, smiling as her eyes adjusted to the darkness and she could look at her still slumbering partner.

Now that all the excitement and horror was over, she had time to contemplate how lucky they had been that they had gone to the supermarket together; the thought of being holed up in the cellar of the house like David's wife had been, with no idea what was going on and how her girlfriend was doing made the redhead shudder, and she quickly pushed it aside, telling herself that everything had worked out in the end and that once more, things would be back to normal soon.

Carefully, since she didn't want to wake her girlfriend up, she got out of bed, grabbing the first shirt she got her hands on and pulled it over her head while making her way into the bathroom, closing the door behind herself before she started with her morning hygiene, only to stop midway during brushing her teeth when she realized that, even though they had gone to the supermarket to get some food and drinks, they hadn't brought anything back. Rolling her eyes, she wondered if the supermarket would be opened again already and if the manager would start pestering them about the stuff they ate when they'd go there; then, she remembered that the car still hadn't been repaired and thus couldn't be used, but she figured that David would borrow them his vehicle if they'd ask.

Thus, she carried on with her routine, then returned into the bedroom once she'd gotten done; there, she found her girlfriend awake by now, sitting upright in the bed and yawning, looking at her when she entered the room.

"Good morning", she greeted with a slight smile, "did you sleep well?"

"After how you tired me out and in that nice, soft bed? I slept like a stone", Willow smiled, giggling when the demon raised an eyebrow.

"After how I tired you out? I think we tired each other out", she then corrected, patting the bed and prompting her girlfriend to sit down next to her, the couple sharing a quick, but tender kiss before Willow reminded her of the lack of food and the fact that they still needed to get some provisions for the next two weeks.

"Yeah, that trip to the supermarket didn't quite work out as planned, huh", Pat smirked in reply, "we should ask David if we can borrow his car, Giles' still needs to be repaired…"

Nodding, Willow made herself comfortable on the bed in reply, clearly not in the mood to get anything of what just had been said done; instead, she leaned in for another kiss, then moved on the bed so she ended up on top of her partner, smiling down on her.

"Want to tire me out again?" the demon smirked, making the redhead's smile widen while she nodded, then demanded yet another kiss, the shirt she had put on just minutes ago landing on the ground again a short time later, all thoughts of cars and supermarkets once more blown out of the two women's minds right afterwards.

* * *

To the relief of both of them, the rest of the holiday was just as peaceful and calm as they had planned when they had come to the house; after some unsuccessful tries, Pat finally did manage to convince Willow about skinny dipping in the lake, the witch having to admit afterwards that it had been a great idea indeed, even though she had been quite nervous that someone might come to the house and see them while they had been in the lake.

Thanks to David and his willingness to borrow them his car, they had managed to get Giles' car repaired two days after the ordeal with the mist had ended; and once that had been done, they drove to the supermarket once more, this time without any mists or monsters waiting for them. To their surprise, all the damage which had been done during those two horrible days had been repaired, the people who were shopping at the store not making any comments about the supernatural drama they had faced, all of them acting as if nothing happened.

The only one who remotely acknowledged anything was Norm, beaming at the couple while he packed up their food and asking them how they were doing and if Pat was managing to stop herself from shedding on the furniture, a joke which raised the eyebrows of the demon and made her girlfriend giggle heartily. To the teenager's obvious relief, the taller woman then merely had reassured him that she didn't shed, no matter in which form of appearance; if anyone had heard that comment, no one had bothered to say anything, a few of the other customers just giving her nervous glances as they'd hurried by.

Now that the danger was over, the rest of the holiday passed much faster than the couple would have liked, and before they knew it, it was time to pack up again and go back to Sunnydale; before they did so though, Willow exchanged email addresses with David, his wife and Norm, promising to stay in touch and that she'd convince her girlfriend to drop them a line every now and then, as well.

"We'll come visit you some day", David promised, his wife nodding enthusiastically; Norm had promised just the same when they had gotten his email address, and had been quite excited as well at the thought of seeing the town where his newfound friends had come from.

"Drive safely", Stephanie now told the couple, handing Willow a bag of home-made cookies for the road, "and be careful once you're back home, will you?"

"Sure", the redhead reassured her, smiling, "and I'll write to you as soon as we're at home." Nodding, the young woman stepped forward to hug them both briefly; David merely shook their hands instead, smiling heartily at them though, then watching with his wife how they both got into the car and Pat started the engine, Willow waving to them while her partner carefully backed out of the driveway, then turned the car on the road, giving them a brief wave too before she stepped on the gas pedal and drove off, keeping her gaze focused on the road while her girlfriend started looking through the CDs once more.

"You know", she spoke up after she had found one and had put it into the player, the melodic music filling the car moments later, "after all that mess was over, it really was a nice holiday. We should come here again some day."

"Good idea", Pat agreed, "but we'll check the weather report first this time, just in case. I don't want another creepy mist to pop up."

"Me neither", the redhead giggled, "but now I can't wait to see Buffy's face when we tell her about all that. I bet she'll be shocked to hear that even during holidays, we managed to end up in disaster."

"It wasn't our fault though", the demon pointed out, making the redhead nod; still smiling, she reached over with one hand and placed it on the upper leg of her partner, making her look over at her for a moment with a slight smile curling her lips before she focused on the road again, both her and her girlfriend looking forward now to returning to the town they called their home.

End.


End file.
